Losing goodwill

By virtue of Proclamation 655 signed in September last year by President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III, we are observing a national holiday today to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year. Also known as the Chinese Spring Festival, President Aquino said it is “one of the most revered and festive events celebrated not only in China but also in the Philippines by both Chinese-Filipinos and ordinary Filipinos as well.”

Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the first day of the year of the Chinese calendar. We, in the Philippines, have been observing Chinese New Year’s day as a “non-working holiday” since 2011. This day has always been observed publicly but had never been made into a national holiday before Proclamation 655.

Among our neighboring countries, perhaps it is with the People’s Republic of China that the Philippines often and openly has diplomatic clashes. The sorest point of bilateral relations between the two countries has been the disputed territorial claims over the islands, islets, reefs, atolls, and shoals around the overlapping waters of the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea.

Lately, the conflict over the disputed waters expanded over air space in the same areas. This was after China adopted its controversial new air defense identification zone (AIDZ). The questioned AIDZ widened to include other parties contesting it like Japan, the United States and the rest of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Upon the initiatives of the Philippines, we invoked our country’s claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which China refused to acknowledge. But the case is now lodged before international courts.

Though feuding over these territorial claims, both the Philippines and China have kept open lines to discuss these irritants at the diplomatic level.

But on the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year, the Chinese authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) headed by Leung Chun-ying announced holders of official Philippine government passports will no longer be allowed to visit for up to 14 days without visas starting Feb. 5.

The HKSAR government decided to suspend the visa-free visits by Philippine officials because the Aquino administration has not apologized for the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists in the bungled police rescue operations in the Luneta hostage-taking incident in Manila in August 2010.

Since this incident, Hong Kong issued a “black” travel warning for the Philippines. It is a label the Philippines shares with Egypt, Syria and Bangkok, and, Thailand.

Although the Philippine government sent formal condolences and regret to the families and relatives of the victims, the HKSAR insisted President Aquino should give formal apology. Leung reiterated though the two sides had already agreed on three other issues: compensation, holding responsible officials accountable, and putting in place safety measures for tourists.

Former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada earlier offered to make the formal apology in behalf of the city government of Manila and fly to Hong Kong to personally relay this to the HKSAR. Estrada volunteered to assume full responsibility for the unfortunate incident and offer compensation for the victims. He conceded it was clearly a bungled job of his immediate predecessor, former mayor Alfredo Lim.

However, Mayor Estrada decided to defer his trip, per request from Malacañang, while the national government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), handles the matter.

Last month, President Aquino quietly sent to Hong Kong his Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras to pay the initial amount of compensation for the injured victims and to discuss with concerned HKSAR authorities on a closure of this case. However, it was still not enough to appease the HKSAR, for what reasons we could only speculate.

But we should be thankful instead to the HKSAR if they will really suspend the visa-free privilege of Philippine government officials. This will mean savings of taxpayers money that would otherwise be spent for the Hong Kong junkets of Philippine officials. 

On a positive note, we have gathered Beijing has named already the replacement of its former ambassador to the country, Ma Keqing, who ended her tour of duty last month.

China’s former ambassador to Liberia Zhao Jianhua was named as the next Chinese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Philippines. Zhao also worked at the Asia desk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Zhao is expected to assume office at the Chinese Embassy in Manila by the middle of next month.

Before she left Manila, ambassador Ma admitted her stint was not always “rosy” because the bilateral relations between the two countries have been “bumpy” with the territorial dispute. It was during her watch here that the Philippines filed a case against China on the South China Sea dispute.

Last week, China softened and called on the Philippines to meet it halfway on its new fishing regulations in the South China Sea where Beijing requires foreign fishing vessels to obtain Chinese approval before entering the disputed waters. Of course, the Philippines rejected China’s call and instead reiterated the invitation to Beijing to join the international arbitration.

The Chinese embassy is currently headed by their Charge d’ Affaires Sun Xiangyang who hosted their Spring Festival reception at the Makati Shangri-La last Monday night. In his brief remarks, Sun maintained China believes the current difficulties in its relations with the Philippines are just “temporary” hardships compared to the two countries’ long-standing friendship through these years.

Sun vowed China will remain a responsible member of the international community, dedicated to developing friendly and cooperative relations with all countries. The people in China believe that 2014 — the Year of the Horse — would be a good year, he added. So perhaps this should stop the bully tactics.

We only know too well it’s not worth to lose goodwill in pursuit of peaceful coexistence in this part of the world. Kung hei fat choi!