The Philippines has banned two US lawmakers from visiting and would introduce tighter entry restrictions for US citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president’s spokesman said on Friday.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte would impose visa requirements on US nationals should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of Philippine Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to the US, as sought by US senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy.
Duterte’s move comes after the US Congress approved a budget that contains a provision introduced by the senators against anyone involved in holding De Lima, who was charged with drug offenses in 2017 after she led an investigation into mass killings during Duterte’s campaign against illegal narcotics.
“We will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign state,” Philippine presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a news conference.
The Philippines grants visa-free entry for up to 30 days to Americans, 792,000 of whom visited in the first nine months of this year, nearly 13 percent of foreign arrivals.
The US embassy in Manila and the US Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Leahy’s spokesman David Carle called the charges against De Lima politically motivated.
“This is about the right of Filipino citizens — and people everywhere — to freely express their opinions, including opinions that may be critical of government policies that involve the use of excessive force and the denial of due process,” he said.
Travel restrictions over De Lima’s detention were nonsense, because she was not wrongfully imprisoned, but detained pending trial for crimes, Panelo said.
“The case of Senator De Lima is not one of persecution, but of prosecution,” he said.
Duterte has made no secret of his disdain for the US and what he considers its hypocrisy and interference, although he has admitted that most Filipinos and his military have high regard for their country’s former colonial ruler.
De Lima, a secretary of justice in a former administration, has won numerous awards from human rights groups, which consider her a prisoner of conscience.
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