The Philippine Congress yesterday began investigating a diplomatic row with Taiwan that erupted after Philippine authorities deported 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China early this month.
The Committee on Interparliamentary Relations and Diplomacy under the Philippines’ House of Representatives held its first hearing on the issue, focusing on whether Philippine laws and procedures were broken in deporting the Taiwanese to China along with 10 Chinese suspects on Feb. 2.
The probe was initiated by committee chairman Antonio Diaz, during a House plenary session two days earlier. The proposal was immediately passed.
According to House documents obtained by Central News Agency, Diaz slammed the Philippine Bureau of Immigration in a speech at the session for deporting the Taiwanese suspects to China in spite of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the country’s Court of Appeals on Jan. 31 that ordered the National Bureau of Investigation, the immigration bureau and the Department of Justice to bring the detainees to a Feb. 2 hearing.
The deportation sparked outrage and drew a strong protest from Taiwan, which initiated retaliatory measures, including recalling its envoy in Manila, tightening the screening of applications by Philippine citizens seeking to work in Taiwan and canceling visa-waiver privileges for some Philippine citizens.
On Feb. 8, Al Francis Bichara, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also proposed that the committee should get to the bottom of the incident and assess its possible impact on bilateral relations.
The House’s Secretariat is dealing with the proposal and investigations are scheduled to get under way next week, congressional sources said.
Meanwhile, Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said the row over the deported Taiwanese was an issue between Beijing and Taipei and did not involve Manila.
“Taiwan and Beijing are supposed to have this 2009 cross-straits [sic] agreement on crime fighting and mutual judicial assistance where they can really settle matters like this,” de Lima said in a TV interview.
“The Philippines is not a party to that. It is now up to Taiwan and Beijing to settle that matter [between] themselves,” she said, adding that the Philippines would not apologize over the incident.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Justice said that while it was unlikely Beijing would agree to immediately return the 14 Taiwanese suspects, it had asked Chinese authorities to do so, along with the legal evidence, after Chinese prosecutors have completed their investigation.
“So far, China has not responded to our request,” said Tsai Rei-tsong (蔡瑞宗), director of the ministry’s Department of Prosecutorial Affairs.
The ministry has requested that the 14 Taiwanese be tried in Taiwan using legal evidence provided by China, he said, adding that it had promised Beijing that prosecutors would seek heavy sentences.
Additional reporting by Rich Changting by Rich Chang
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RSS