Malacañang has requested the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to review the blacklist order issued against nine Hong Kong television and radio journalists who allegedly heckled President Benigno Aquino III last year.
“Ang amin pong kahilingan sa BI, dahil sila po ang nag-isyu ng Denial of Entry, ay ire-assess po nila iyong situwasyon,” Presidential Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a radio interview.
(We will request the BI, because they were the ones which issued the Denial of Entry, to re-assess the situation).
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday, meanwhile, said it will ask for the lifting of travel ban on nine Hong Kong journalists who were barred from entering the country for heckling President Benigno S. Aquino III at an economic summit last year.
“That issue will be revisited. We will act on it,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters at the Manila Peninsula Hotel where he was awarded as Man of the Year by business leaders group Management Association of the Philippines.
DFA spokesman Charles Jose added that the department will ask that the journalists be taken out of the travel blacklist.
“That will be our recommendation,” Jose said. “There is no basis for this exclusion.”
In a statement issued on Saturday, BI spokeswoman Aileen Tan confirmed that a blacklist order has been issued against the nine Hong Kong journalists upon a recommendation submitted by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) last June.
Tan said one of the grounds cited by the NICA in its recommendation was “on the interest of public safety,” as the journalists reportedly showed disrespect toward President Benigno Aquino III during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping held in Hong Kong last year. (with MST/Joyce Panares)
