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Updated Thursday, February 17, 2011 11:21 pm TWN, CNA

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Philippine Congress probes deportation row

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Congress yesterday began investigating a diplomatic row with Taiwan that erupted after the Philippine authorities deported 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China early this month.

The Committee on Interparliamentary Relations and Diplomacy under the Philippine Congress's House of Representatives held its first hearing on the issue, focusing on whether Filipino laws and procedures were broken in deporting the Taiwanese to China along with 10 Chinese suspects Feb. 2.

The probe was initiated by Antonio Diaz, chairman of the committee, during a House plenary session two days earlier.

According to House documents obtained by CNA, Diaz slammed the Philippine Bureau of Immigration in a speech at the session for deporting the Taiwanese suspects to China in spite of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the country's Court of Appeals Jan. 31 that ordered the National Bureau of Investigation, the immigration bureau and the Department of Justice to bring the detainees to a Feb. 2 hearing.

The deportation sparked outrage and drew a strong protest from Taiwan, which initiated a series of retaliatory measures, including recalling its envoy in Manila, tightening the screening of applications by Filipino citizens seeking to work in Taiwan and canceling visa-waiver privileges for some categories of Filipino citizens.

On Feb. 8, Al Francis Bichara, chairman of the House's Committee on Foreign Affairs, also came up with a proposal to get to the bottom of the incident and assess possible impact on bilateral relations.

The findings could serve as reference for future legal amendments by Congress, Bichara said.

In his proposal, Bichara said there are now about 100,000 Philippine nationals working in Taiwan, which he said is the Philippines' fifth-largest trade partner, fifth-largest source of foreign investment and 13th largest export outlet.

Although relations between Taiwan and China have improved in recent years, the Philippine government should still exercise caution and sensitivity in dealing with issues involving the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, he said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announced the previous week that his administration will send a special envoy to Taiwan to explain its stance on the issue as part of efforts to mend bilateral ties.

Taiwan government spokesman Johnny Chiang reiterated Tuesday that the Philippines must apologize for deporting the Taiwanese to China and display goodwill and a sincere desire to patch up relations.

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Comments

February 18, 2011 jerry.c.ku@

The Philippine of course have right to deport Taiwanese criminals to any where: We also have our right to shut our door to Pilipino workers,

I do not think we are tough enough so far. We shall strongly tell Mr. Ma either you kick out every Pilipino workers from the Island or we kick you out from your own office.

Mr. Lima, Please remember we Taiwanese have no obligation to solve your employment problem, and you have no right to tell us what we should do.