U.S. ENVOY VISITS NOY AMID NOBEL FLAP
MANILA, DECEMBER 15, 2010 (STAR) By Aurea Calica - United States Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. met with President Aquino at Malacañang yesterday just as the Chief Executive was defending the country's skipping the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremonies, citing the need to save Filipinos on death row in China.
The President, however, did not give details about the meeting.
Thomas, when asked about what was discussed, told The STAR only that the US side asked for the meeting and "we wished each other Merry Christmas."
In Beijing, the government said yesterday it was handling the cases of five Filipinos sentenced to death for drug offenses according to law.
"China's judiciary handled the cases of the five Philippine drug traffickers independently and in accordance with law," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters when asked about Manila's no-show at the Nobel rites in Norway.
"Their rights have been ensured and we have been following the conventions on consular affairs and regular Chinese laws and regulations," Jiang said. "We will update the Philippine side on the case in a timely manner and provide necessary assistance and convenience for Philippine consular officials."
Aquino said on Monday he would have an informal chat with Thomas and that there was no reason for the Philippines to apologize to the US for not sending a representative to the ceremony honoring Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.
"Certainly, we are trying to repair relations between China and the Philippines. We do not want to have another irritant coming along the way of Philippines and China relations," palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing.
Lacierda said the decision was in the interest of the Filipinos and should not be connected to other issues like the new travel advisory issued by Hong Kong.
He said the Philippines' efforts to harmonize relations with China should actually be considered.
"The fact that we would not want to irritate Philippines-China relations should have prompted the Hong Kong special administrative region not to issue that black travel advisory. But, again, we don't know where the basis of the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) decision to issue that came from. Metro Manila is fine. Peace and order situation is fine so there's no reason for them to issue that black travel alert," Lacierda said.
Lacierda added that the Philippines had given assurance that the second phase of the incident investigation and review committee on the Aug. 23 hostage crisis would focus on institutional reforms.
"We're coming up with tourism police, we're coming up also with tourism courts. We are also finalizing the crisis manual, we have set up the presidential situation room – all these institutional recommendations are in place and are being done. So, insofar as our determination to provide safety for all our tourists, it's all there. We are doing our part right now," Lacierda said.
"Again, we have started institutionalizing the recommendations of the IIRC. We have done our part. We are very, very confident that once they are all in place and some of them are already in place, that we would be able to prove to the tourists from around the world that we are a safe country to visit and we do hope that the tourists will not stop coming to visit us as well as all our balikbayans from abroad," he said.
He admitted though that the Philippines would need to do more to improve its relations with Hong Kong and Beijing.
"We need to assure the Hong Kong people since the Hong Kong residents were affected by the hostage-taking incident. We need to further improve our relations with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Insofar as China is concerned, we have a good working relationship with them," Lacierda said.
But Lacierda said they could not tell for sure if China would accede to the Philippine request to spare the Filipinos on death row in China even after skipping the Nobel ceremonies.
"Again, it's dependent on the Chinese legal system. But again, this would at least smoothen the flow of relations between China and the Philippines. It will not provide further cause for strain between our countries. So we do hope and we pray that the letter of the President will be received favorably by the Chinese judges and by the Chinese government," Lacierda said.
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