Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s administration has been careful to downplay the current diplomatic spat with Taiwan, describing its handling of the incident as “non-official” in nature.
Taipei has held the Philippine government responsible for the incident in which Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) died in waters disputed by the two countries in a shooting involving Philippine Coast Guard personnel onboard a vessel belonging to its Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
However, Manila has tried to downplay the government’s role in the incident, with Aquino on Monday reiterating that Manila would handle the case in line with its “one China” policy.
In response to Taipei’s demand that Manila offer a formal apology, defined by Taipei as an apology by either the office of the Philippine president or the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, Aquino said at the time that the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) — the Philippines’ representative office in Taiwan — is the lead agency in charge of the issue, not the department, because of the “one China” policy.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Philippine presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda emphasized the “non-official nature” of Manila’s handling of the case.
Lacierda said that MECO Chairman Amadeo Perez, who arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday and returned to the Philippines yesterday after being denied meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) and with Hung’s family, was designated by Aquino as his “personal representative.”
Asked how the decision to send Perez to Taiwan was made, Lacierda said it was a “personal decision of the president,” not a decision by the government.
Lacierda said that Perez was tasked by Aquino to convey “his personal and the Filipino people’s apology” to Hung’s family and the people of Taiwan.
When Perez was in Taipei, he also repeatedly emphasized that he came to Taiwan in the capacity of Aquino’s personal representative.
Asked whether the apology he offered on behalf of Aquino was an apology offered by the Philippine government to the Taiwanese government, he said the apology was addressed to Hung’s family and the people of Taiwan.
During negotiations with Filipino officials on Tuesday, Taipei said that Manila’s response to its demands regarding the incident should be signed off by the office of the Philippine president or by the Department of Foreign Affairs, but the Filipinos rebuffed the request.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods