MANILA: Senators yesterday urged Macalañang to apologise to Hong Kong over the Manila hostage crisis in 2010 where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed by a dismissed policeman.
“The refusal to apologize I find hard to understand,” said Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Marcos cited the efforts of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, who has said that he will try to reach out to Hong Kong officials to negotiate its decision to cancel visa-free arrangements for Philippine officials and diplomat passport holders.
“Erap’s efforts are a good step knowing how this problem affects our Filipino workers there,” he said. Senator Vicente Sotto III shared the concern as he also asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to look again on the issue and reconsider its decision not to apologize over the bungled police rescue operation for the Hong Kong tourists.
“I think its too much pride on the part of the DFA,” Senator Sotto said, adding that there’s no harm in asking for an apology for something that cannot be controlled.
Senator JV Ejercito, meanwhile, was saddened by the Hong Kong government’s decision, which came even after his father, Mayor Estrada, issued a public apology over the hostage taking fiasco.
“The City of Manila, where the incident happened, already issued formal and public apology to [the Hong Kong government]… Unfortunately for us, they don’t think that this is sufficient enough, they want our national government to do so,” Ejercito said.
The senator said that Vice President Jejomar Binay should be tapped as an emissary to help ease the tension between the two governments.
“If PNOY is reluctant to say sorry now, may I suggest instead that we send an official emissary to HK to resolve this issue,” Ejercito said.
“VP Binay is doing good in his job as defender of OFW.”
“Since it involves hundreds of thousand OFW, Binay is the right man for this job,” Senator Ejercito added.
The Philippine Star
