3 senators urge gov’t to apologize to HK

MANILA, Philippines - Three senators urged the administration yesterday to reconsider its decision and apologize to Hong Kong for the death of eight Hong Kong tourists in the hostage crisis in Manila in 2010.

Senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Vicente Sotto III and JV Ejercito issued their separate appeals.

Marcos said: “The refusal to apologize I find hard to understand. Erap’s efforts are a good step, knowing how this problem affects our Filipino workers there,” referring to the former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

Sotto asked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to again look into the issue.

“I think it’s too much pride on the part of the DFA,” he said. “Nothing wrong to apologize for a situation in which we had no control.” 

Ejercito said the apology of the City of Manila, led by his father, Mayor Joseph Estrada was not good enough for the Hong Kong government.

“The City of Manila, where the incident happened, already issued formal and public apology to the Hong Kong government,” he said.

“Unfortunately for us, they don’t think that this is sufficient enough, they want our national government to do so.”

Ejercito recommended that Vice President Jejomar Binay be tapped as an emissary to help ease the tension between the two governments.

“If P-Noy (President Aquino) is reluctant to say sorry now, may I suggest instead that we send an official emissary to HK to resolve this issue,” he said.

“VP Binay is doing good in his job as defender of OFWs. Since it involves hundreds of thousands OFWs, Binay is the right man for this job.”