Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri was surprised by the Chinese Embassy in Manila’s statement that the report that they put the Philippines on the tourism blacklist due to the operation of offshore gaming or POGO is “misinformation”.
This Wednesday, Zubiri stood by his statement on Tuesday that Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian allegedly mentioned the word “blacklisting” when they met on Monday.
“I was shocked by the turnaround. I was shocked by the statement of the Embassy and it’s regrettable because we had several witnesses,” said Zubiri in an interview with journalists.
According to Zubiri, what happened may have been “lost in translation” but not “misinformation.”
“Maybe mali po sa pagsabi na misinformation. I think it should’ve just been a clarification… ‘Misinformation’ lumalabas na para akong Marites na nagbibigay ng maling information or fake news. ‘Di naman fake news ‘yon, daming nakinig sa kanya buti sana kung kaming dalawa lang,” he insisted.
Zubiri was accompanied by Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Robin Padilla, and other Senate staff when they met the Chinese envoy.
“The fault lies with the ambassador. He mentioned blacklisting. Siguro nagkamali ang ambassador. Pero we stand by our statement na binanggit ng ambassador ang word na blacklisting several times,” he said.
Zubiri disagrees with Chinese Embassy’s statement
“Maybe… we were misinformed by the ambassador possibly. Kaya may witnesses eh. Tatatlo kaming senador nandun di naman siguro ako gagawa ng kuwento,” he added.
He even asked Huang if he could share the information he said in their Senate hearing about POGO.
However, the Senate leader said he would not apologize for the statement made by the Chinese Embassy. Still, he wants the Chinese envoy to give a clear statement on the issue of blacklisting in the Philippines if the POGO operation continues in the country.
A few hours after Zubiri announced Tuesday that the country was blacklisted as a tourist destination by the Chinese government because of POGO, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement denying this.
“The report of ‘tourist blacklist’ is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism,” the Chinese embassy said.
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