When you fly into a strange city it’s very helpful if your suitcase arrives at the same time.  In Singapore when your case is missing you get an immediate payout to buy some clothes and toilet gear and your suitcase is delivered to your hotel as soon as it arrives.        My suitcase was missing when I arrived in the Philippines. When located,  I had a call at my hotel saying  I needed to go to the airport to open up my bag for inspection before I could claim it.

         It was getting late, and I took a taxi to the airport only to find the armed guard at the door wouldn’t let me enter the airport because I did not have a plane ticket.

         He gave me a number to ring to get approval to enter – we didn’t have cell phones in those days. I had to hunt about seeking a phone booth. Ultimately I got my bag but it took some effort.

         I had been sent to the Philippines to help the Asian Development Bank (ADB) carry out a difficult mission in Sri Lanka. At that time the civil war was raging in Sri Lanka and there was a heavy curfew on.

         Of all the countries I worked in the Philippines was the one I felt the least comfortable in. It was a gun-happy country and a country of heavy smokers.  The hotel dining room had a raised platform for non-smokers but all the smoke drifted up.

         I was staying in the Hyatt hotel, very handy to the old ADB building. When being briefed for the mission I walked to and from the Bank along a deserted footpath alongside the main thoroughfare.

         One day I was about to cross a feeder road when a large Crown car pulled up in front of me with a driver. The windows were all darkened.  Suddenly the back window went down and a beckoning figure waved a police badge and a voice said;  “What are you doing in Manila?” he said in a threatening tone. I automatically pulled out my ADB identification card showed it to him and carried on walking.  I was running late for my next appointment so I didn’t stop to talk.

         I thought nothing of this encounter until I casually mentioned I had been held up by a security policeman. You would have thought I had pushed an alarm bell – all hell broke loose. I was rushed off to the head of security, a large Australian. They had been trying to catch this so-called ‘policeman ‘ for ages.

         It appeared this ‘policeman ‘ preyed on ADB consultants. Asked to see their passport. Invited them to sit in the car while he went through their passport before putting a pistol on them and abducting and robbing them.

         What upset me was I was carrying  $14,000 in US dollars in my lightweight body belt at that time. I had been given $7,000 in New Zealand to cover my six weeks’ expenses, and the bank had given me the same sum. I told them I didn’t need it, but they insisted I take it home and give it to the New Zealand government.

         I was shaken. I went straight back to the hotel and rented a security box. It was a valuable lesson. I have never carried large sums of money since.

         There were some positive things I did enjoy about Manila. Some of my ex-UN colleagues from my Bangkok days heard I was in town and put on a dinner party for me at a university.

         At that party, there was a gentleman that I had met in Bangkok. I understand he was wealthy and owned a Thai university. He had a car in town and offered to take me sightseeing.

         I did enjoy the Ayala museum with its sixty-three dioramas setting out the history of the country. We also drove through a huge American war cemetery. Before we were allowed in soldiers examined the inside, outside, and underneath the car.

         The number of American graves shocked me. The Japanese had much to answer for.

         The reason I believe I was offered this mission was that I had spent much time in Sri Lanka and had made many contacts.

         The ADB representative in charge of this mission was Dr. Joe Rajaratnam.  His role was to prepare a draft agricultural development programme for the government of Sri Lanka. My role was to assist him.

         As Joe was a Tamil from Malaysia and as there was a war going on with the Tamil Tigers, I was to go up country to Kandy to take the risks and collect the information the Bank needed from the senior staff of the Department of Agriculture. Their Head Office was in Kandy. Dr. Joe was to stay safely in the five-star Oberoi hotel in Colombo and make political contacts.

         At that time there was no transport as there was a heavy curfew. I asked Dr. Joe how am I to get to Kandy as there was no public transport. He said for me to hire a taxi for a week. But that’s another story for my next blog.

Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates.co.nz)