MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Immigration will likely lift the ban on nine Hong Kong journalists who heckled President Benigno Aquino III, Commissioner Siegfred Mison said on Monday.
Mison said the bureau had received a recommendation from the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) to lift the blacklist.
“We can [reject Nica’s recommendation] but it is not likely because we always give courtesy to other agencies,” Mison said over the phone.
It was the Nica that recommended the inclusion of the Hong Kong journalists in the blacklist order early this year.
The Hong Kong journalists were refused entry in the Philippines for shouting their questions at Aquino during the Apec summit in Bali, Indonesia, last year. They were asking about the 2010 hostage crisis in Manila which had killed eight Hong Kong nationals.
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