‘Foreigners are not above our laws’ – Pimentel

BLENDING IN, SPEAKING OUT Despite the threat of arrest, foreign activists join local counterparts to voice out their anti-Apec sentiments in protests held in Manila in 2015, Parañaque and Pasay City. FILE PHOTO/Aie Balagtas See, PDI

Foreigners who come to the Philippines should not feel that they are “superior” to us, Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Tuesday.

“There is a law here in PH (and this is also generally the rule in many countries) that foreigners are not allowed to meddle in our internal politics/political matters. If we want Filipinos to follow our laws then we should show our own people that foreigners are not above our laws!” Pimentel said in a statement.

“When I visit other countries, I am very careful not to interfere with their domestic political issues because I know their law and I am a law abiding citizen. These foreigners who come here should not feel that they are ‘superior’ to us and hence above our laws! ALL SHOULD FOLLOW THE LAW!” he added.

The Senate leader was reacting to the Bureau of Immigration (BI)’s move to block and deport a Socialist Party official from the European Union, Giocomo Filibeck, from entering the country last Sunday through the Mactan-Cebu International Airport over the weekend.

READ: Immigration blacklists EU Socialist Party official Filibeck

Filibeck, a known critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, was invited as guest speaker of the Akbayan Partylist Congress in Cebu City on Monday but the BI ordered his deportation supposedly for violating his conditions of his stay in the country last year.

In October last year, the official was part of an international solidarity mission to the Philippines, which investigated and denounced the spate of alleged human rights violations in the country.

Filibeck’s deportation was also welcomed by Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

“Undesirable alien yun. Nanggugulo lang sa ’Pinas,” Sotto said in another text message./ac