SAYS HONG KONG HAS NO JURISDICTION, RIGHTS OF FILIPINOS MUST BE RESPECTED
Noy resists HK hijack probe
By Aytch S. de la Cruz 12/19/2010After promising the Hong Kong government that the Philippine government of President Aquino will cooperate fully with Hong Kong authorities in their investigation of the Manila hijacking of a busload of Hong Kong tourists, eight of whom were killed during the botched hostage rescue operations, Malacañang appears to be reneging on its promise to Hong Kong leader and Chief Executive Donald Tsang, using as the Palace excuse the alleged protection of the rights of Filipinos first.
During a recent visit of Philippine tourism secretary to Hong Kong, among the pledges he made to Tsang was that the Aquino adminis-tration will cooperate fully in the Hong Kong probe of the Manila hostage taking incident that occurred last Aug. 23, apart from assuring Tsang that the Aquino government will be providing monetary compensation to the injured and the relatives of the dead Hong Kong tourists.
Hong Kong immediately took up this pledge of Tourism chief Alberto Lim, and anounced that it will summon 116 Filipinos, officials and witnesses as well as police and the forensic teams to testify at a Hong Kong public hearing.
But Malacañang quickly reacted by saying that the Aquino administration will put the rights of its citizens first if Hong Kong calls on them to testify at an inquiry into a fatal hijacking in Manila. Aquino’s deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said they had not yet received full details of the proposal to summon 116 witnesses to the Chinese city’s investigation..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101219hed1.html
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