DIPLOMACY
MANILA,
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) From
the beginning, the Aquino government has shown an ineptitude at diplomacy
despite retaining the services of a Foreign Affairs secretary with more than six
years of experience. People may have forgotten, for example, about the
embarrassment over the President's premature plan to visit Indonesia in
September, or perhaps even the poor etiquette of a member of the President's
party who griped about the wine and men in Vietnam on Twitter while attending
Asean functions. Many more likely remember the hostage-taking fiasco that
strained Philippine relations with Hong Kong and China that still influences the
behavior of Filipino officials today.
The latest blunder has Taiwan seething. The Immigration bureau deported 14
Taiwan Chinese nationals to the People's Republic of China. Reacting to the
deportation, the government in Taipei issued a formal protest, recalled its
representative in Manila, and revoked the visa-free entry privilege to Taiwan
for Filipinos.
It gets worse. An official of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO)
confirmed during a radio interview on Thursday that the Taiwanese government
would retaliate against Filipino workers. Documents of Filipinos that normally
took Taiwan about two weeks to process may now take up to four months, he told
Joe Taruc on dzRH. The Philippine economy is kept afloat by remittances from
overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, who are predicted to send home some $20
billion to their families in the Philippines this year. About 90,000 Filipinos
work in Taiwan, including the undocumented OFWs, according to the MECO official.
Besides hosting Filipino workers, Taiwan is also a major source of foreign
investments in the Philippines. And Taiwan conducts humanitarian and civic
missions here, as well as scholarship grants to Filipinos to study there. It's
unclear whether these programs, too, will be affected by the deportation of the
Taiwanese, although prudence demands consideration of all possibilities no
matter how remote.
The Palace should not underestimate the gravity of the situation. In the eyes
of Taiwan, the Philippines has unwittingly intervened in the sensitive
cross-straits affairs by deporting the Taiwanese to archrival China. To date, it
still considers Taiwan a renegade province. But it doesn't serve Philippine
interests to take sides.
Very significant is that the deportation may have repercussions on Taiwan's
domestic politics, because the issue is reportedly being used by the Taiwanese
opposition to attack the ability of President Ma Ying-jeou's government to
protect its citizens. President Ma is up for reelection next year.
Options for the President Taiwan's representative in Manila, Donald Lee,
demanded that the Philippines apologize to Taiwan. The Palace should weigh that
heavily, hopefully with advice from experts at the Department of Foreign
Affairs.
More importantly, we urge the President to look into the deportation case,
and declare that he will not tolerate shenanigans at the Bureau of Immigration
or elsewhere in government against foreigners, whether they are from Taiwan or
someplace else. Looking into Mr. Lee's allegations that Philippine laws and
human rights were violated has nothing to do with the One China Policy.
The authorities should investigate why the Taiwanese were allegedly detained
illegally. They, along with 10 Chinese from the mainland, were arrested by
officers of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on December 27, 2010, but
the cases against them were not filed until January 4 and 5, 2011—after the
Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) wrote to complain about the
detention.
Also, there ought to be a probe into the undue haste by the Immigration
bureau and the lack of due process. According to TECO, the Taiwanese and Chinese
were flown to China on February 2, 2011, in spite of a writ of habeas corpus
issued by the Court of Appeals on January 31, 2011 that orders the NBI, the
Immigration bureau and the Department of Justice to bring the detainees to a
hearing on February 2nd. And the prosecutors had even scheduled a hearing on
February 8 and 10, 2011.
The Immigration bureau instead held a hearing on February 1, 2011, but TECO
claimed it was not informed. And when the 14 Taiwanese were about to be flown
out, Mr. Lee said that he rushed to the airport with a copy of writ of habeas
corpus to halt the deportation, but he was stopped by the authorities there.
Finally, the Palace should look into why the Taiwanese were classified as
undocumented aliens. TECO alleges that their passports were confiscated by the
NBI. Plus, TECO had contacted them several times about the 14 Taiwanese. If
there was still doubt about nationality, the authorities could have asked MECO
if it issued visas to the 14 detained. In sending the Taiwanese to China, Mr.
Lee points out correctly that the Philippines violated its own immigration laws.
One China Policy On a related matter, we urge Foreign Affairs Sec. Alberto
Romulo to send someone to explain the One China Policy to the President and his
spokesmen. They appear ignorant in invoking that policy with regard to this
deportation scandal.
Officially, we have no diplomatic ties with Taiwan. But economic and
geopolitical concerns make it essential for us to have strong "economic and
cultural relations" with the government of that friend and neighbor. In a polite
rebuke, Mr. Lee pointed out some truths. When Filipinos apply for a visa to work
in Taiwan, they do so at TECO, not at the Chinese embassy in Manila. And when
the Filipinos workers are paid for their labor, they receive Taiwanese dollars,
not renminbi, the currency of the mainland.
Taiwan has a point that at issue here is not the One China Policy. The issue
is whether Philippine laws and procedures were broken by Filipino authorities.
And a related issue is the authority of a writ of habeas corpus issued by Court
of Appeals, as well as the authority of prosecutors who have yet to complete
their procedures in this case. It is unfortunate that because foreigners were
involved, the Filipino people, particularly the innocent and hardworking OFWs in
Taiwan, are the ones that end up suffering the consequences.
Chief News Editor:
Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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