Is Hong Kong acting like a bully?

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s move on January 20 to revoke visa-free access to holders of Philippine official and diplomatic passports was not as unexpected as it was surprising, for falling short of the initial threat to restrict the entry of all tourists from the Philippines. (READ: Hong Kong curbs PH’s visa-free privilege)

After all, it has resolutely kept the black travel alert to the Philippines it issued soon after the Luneta hostage fiasco 3 years ago, suggesting that the country is a higher security risk for tourists than Thailand or even Syria.

What Hong Kong legislators had proposed as an initial step was to cancel visa-free access to all Filipinos, except residents and those with valid employment visas, unless President Benigno Aquino III apologized for the hostage tragedy.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying adroitly skirted the difficult position of being accused of going after innocent Filipinos by imposing the sanction only on officials and diplomats, the people Hong Kong says are directly to blame for the tragedy.

But he hinted of more sanctions, unless the Philippines issues an official apology for the botched hostage rescue in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

The Manila government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, reacted with a swift rejection of Hong Kong’s demand, saying that “the Philippines, as a sovereign nation, is not prepared to consider” issuing an apology.

The statement said a “substantive closure” to the impasse had been reached 3 years ago with the former Hong Kong government and the victims and survivors’ families.

While neither side has openly talked about this initial deal, Philippine sources say it involved the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to each of the victims, “as a token of solidarity.”

When negotiations over the incident were reopened in October last year, Manila again forked out money to help pay for the $1million surgery that one of the victims, Yik Siu-ling had in Taiwan, after several failed ones in Hong Kong.

While taken aback by the announcement, coming as it did just two days before the start of the festive Lunar New Year holidays, many Filipinos in Hong Kong, particularly migrant domestic workers have reacted with defiance.

No apology!

Comments posted on social media by many overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong have supported the Philippine government’s stance, despite the threat of more sanctions that could ultimately affect them.

“No apology!” was the initial reaction of many who posted on the Facebook page of The SUN, the largest Filipino community newspaper in Hong Kong. Many said they are domestic workers who do not worry about losing their job because what is at stake is national pride and dignity.

But the militant United Filipinos in Hong Kong, a Migrante affiliate, expressed a contrary view. In a statement, the group called on President Aquino to give in to Hong Kong’s demand before it becomes too late.

Unifil’s spokesperson Eman Villanueva said, “Will it hurt the Philippine government to apologize directly to the survivors and families of the victims as they demand?”

Villanueva suggested the apology would be no different from the one given by the Manila government after a Taiwanese fisherman was mistakenly shot and killed by the Philippine coast guard in May last year.

Political ploy?

Edna Aquino, a permanent resident who is active in community affairs, disagreed, calling Hong Kong’s move a “classic bullying tactic” fueled by Beijing as a result of its dispute with Manila over shoals and reefs in the West Philippine Sea.

She said that like many people in Hong Kong and the Philippines, she fully sympathizes with the victims and survivors of the Luneta tragedy, who deserve compensation and assistance of high standard from the Philippine government.

But she added that Hong Kong’s demand for an apology has become “a political ploy to serve a political agenda of China against the Philippines and is not helping at all in the healing and closure on the part of the victims’ families and survivors.”

An American human rights lawyer and professor was more contemptuous of Hong Kong’s move.

James Rice said Hong Kong is a just a city of China and not a sovereign state like the Philippines. Secondly, the government of the Philippines was duly elected by the people, while Hong Kong’s leader was not. Further, the Philippine leader is mandated by the Constitution to engage in foreign relations, but not Hong Kong’s Chief Executive.

“Given this lack of parity, this state of affairs begins to look increasingly questionable.  When one looks more closely, it would appear that what is really at work is less about state to state relations and more about local politics. The bus hostage matter is being used by several groups in Hong Kong to advance their own interests,” Rice said.

Other people, apparently non-Filipinos, appear to be as dismissive, if not outraged, by Hong Kong’s sanctions and threats of more to come.

Put it to rest

Readers’ reactions posted on the website of Hong Kong’s largest English language daily, the South China Morning Post, are largely contemptuous.

“Can we give this issue a rest already,” said reader Andrew Jesena.

Another, who goes by the name “realestate,” chimed in: “Very petty minded step…it has Mainland China’s blessings…Shame on HK.”

One reader could not resist linking the demand for apology to the recent case of Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who went home with horrific abuse allegedly inflicted by her Hong Kong employer.

“If the HK’rs (Hongkongers)  and the pathetic CY government expect an apology from the Philippine government, then I think CY should first apologize to the Indonesians for the tragic suffering…caregiver “Erwiana” suffered during her time in HK. Her suffering was a result of the incompetency of the HK system so CY should bear the full weight of the issue and apologize to the Indonesian people. If he cannot even do this, then there is no reason on earth why he can demand the Philippine government to apologize to the HK victims.”

Given the flak it is getting from several fronts, it remains to be seen if Hong Kong will make good on its threat to continue lashing at the Philippines until President Aquino says the all-important “sorry.”

Still, if Beijing is truly behind Hong Kong’s hardline stance, the Philippines would do well to look for an alternative shelter for its nearly 200,000 citizens in the territory. – Rappler.com

Daisy CL Mandap is a veteran journalist, having worked for various newspapers and TV stations in the Philippines and in Hong Kong. She is also a lawyer and migrants rights activist. For the past 14 years, she has worked as the editor of The SUN-HK, a bi-weekly Filipino community newspaper published in Hong Kong by her husband, Leo A. Deocadiz.