P-Noy's China trip still being worked out

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino clarified yesterday that his scheduled trip to China would not be scrapped but details were still being worked out, despite the recent execution of three Filipinos who were convicted of drug trafficking in China.

“There is an invitation. We haven’t finalized the details. And there are a lot of things that have to be worked out. There is nothing definite yet,” Aquino told reporters during ceremonies at the Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Co. of Manila, Inc. (AG&P) in Bauan, Batangas.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said countries should respect each other’s laws. He stressed that the execution of the three was an isolated incident that should not affect relations between the Philippines and China.

Malacañang said yesterday the execution of the three Filipino drug couriers in China would not strain but should further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in fighting drug trafficking, which victimizes ordinary people.

Aquino gave assurances that curbing the illegal drug trade has always been a priority of his administration and that greater cooperation is needed to stop drug trafficking.

Convicted Filipino drug couriers Ramon Credo, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva and Elizabeth Batain were executed by lethal injection in China on Wednesday.

“We have to move on and in fact we have to be in closer cooperation especially with respect to drug trafficking in these areas,”  Lacierda said.

Lacierda said the President emphasized the need for government agencies regulating overseas employment to make sure that this incident would “not happen again.”

Lacierda also said it should no longer be an issue that the Philippines decided not to send a representative to the Nobel Peace Prize honoring a Chinese political dissident and deported Taiwanese nationals accused of committing fraud to China instead of Taipei in the hope of getting a reprieve for the three Filipinos.

“In fact, it’s already precedent setting, the fact that we are able to secure a postponement, one that other countries have failed to secure. For instance Britain was not able to secure a postponement of the execution of its own national,” Lacierda said.

“This in fact is a concern for China because they have told me other countries would now be invoking the kind of treatment that they give to the Philippines as a way of justifying a postponement of the execution of their own nationals,” Lacierda said.

Lacierda said the government did its best and “we did it in cognizance of the limitations of what we can do.”

He said the nation sympathized with the families of the condemned and their deaths were a vivid lesson in the tragic toll the drug trade would take on entire families.