Hong Kong’s black alert would remain unless the Philippine government shows that it is doing something to protect its tourists, according to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

But Malacañang believes that the government has done enough to warrant the lifting of Hong Kong’s black travel alert to the Philippines, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said on Thursday.

Lacierda said in a news briefing that when President Aquino met with officials from the Chinese foreign ministry and Hong Kong shortly after last year’s fatal hostage-taking at Rizal Park, the officials’ primary concern was tourist safety in the country.

“I think we are doing that and we continue to do it…. It’s not yet perfect but we continue to upgrade…. We continue to improve our services and all in the perspective that our tourists would be safe, and also our own nationals,” he said.

Lacierda said all the government could do is to continue to upgrade its tourism services while waiting for Hong Kong to lift the black travel alert.

“We will leave it with them, with the Hong Kong administration and for them to see whether to remove us [from black travel alert]. We cannot dictate on them; we can only improve our services…. We can only hope they can see the improvements we have made and will be making, and we can convince them to remove us from their black travel alert,” he said.

But Lacierda said it is “unfair” for Hong Kong to rank the Philippines with Syria, the only other country with a black travel alert.

“What we find unfair though is that we are being lumped up with Syria, which, as you know, is there’s a whale of a difference between the peace-and-order situation with Syria,” he said.

Lacierda also said the Department of Tourism (DOT) will be giving a familiarization tour for Hong Kong travel agencies, the media and members of the Hong Kong Security Bureau, either in September or October, but added that this would depend on the status of the black travel alert to the Philippines.