The Chinese embassy in the Philippines has denied putting the country on a travel blacklist, calling the claim “misinformation.”
As the embassy put it in a statement distributed to journalists who cover in reporting international relations.
“The report of ‘tourist blacklist’ is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism,” the Chinese embassy said.
The remark was issued after Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri reported hearing from Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian that the Philippines had been placed on a blacklist due to the Philippine offshore gaming operations or POGOs.
“Ambassador Huang said that the Philippines now is part of a blacklist of tourist sites because they do not know if a tourist will be joining POGO operations and they don’t know if their nationals who go to the Philippines will be safe from illegal activities being done by the triad, by the syndicates operating POGOs,” Zubiri said.
“They may be kidnapped, mistaken for POGO operators. That’s the reason why there’s been a significant drop in Chinese tourists. By the way, they are the largest number of tourists pre-pandemic,” he added.
At the Monday meeting, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian claimed he had a “different appreciation” of Huang’s remarks on POGO.
Philippines not on blacklist for tourist destinations – Chinese embassy
“Baka ang appreciation namin iba, pero definitely, ang aming pagkakaintindi ang POGO makaaapekto sa turismo natin na manggaling sa China. That’s for sure,” Gatchalian said.
“Whether it’s a restriction, a total blacklist, doon kami [magkaiba] ng appreciation pero pareho kami na itong POGO makakaapekto yan sa dami ng turista na manggagaling sa China,” he added.
After the embassy dismissed rumors of a blacklist as false, Zubiri issued the following statement: “During our meeting with Ambassador Huang, the tone of his statement was that the Philippines is already being watched as a tourist hotspots and have been warning their countrymen of possible crimes that could happen to them due to POGO.”
“This statement was done during our meeting of which Senator Gatchalian and Senator Robin Padilla were present at that time,” Zubiri said.
“Conferring today with Senator Gatchalian, we both concurred that that was the message being conveyed by the good Ambassador,” he added.
“Maybe it was lost in translation and what the good Ambassador meant was we could be possibly blacklisted as he mentioned they do that to countries who promote gambling for their countrymen,” Zubiri said.
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