Palace ignores envoy’s stance on sex tourism

US Ambassador Harry Thomas. AFP FILE PHOTO

Malacañang on Sunday declined to comment on a report that US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas last week said he was standing by his controversial statement that 40 percent of male tourists came to the Philippines for sex.

“We cannot comment anymore on (Thomas’) statement,” presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over government radio dzRB. She said  the Palace would defer to the Department of Foreign Affairs “on any other action that it may wish to take in light of (Thomas’) recent statement.”

Thomas, who faced a hail of criticism last year from government officials and lawmakers who said his statement did not have basis, was quoted   as telling a town hall meeting at the Philippine Consulate in New York  that he had apologized for making the statement  “to get out of a stir.”

The ambassador, who continues to campaign for more country efforts to prevent human trafficking, then  pointed to similar statements made by Filipino antihuman trafficking advocates.

ABS-CBN quoted Thomas as telling the Filipino-American audience: “The reason I apologized is, one, to get out of a stir. If you want to talk seriously then let’s look at a serious challenge. You can go on YouTube and see ECPAT and they say 40 to 62 percent, this is not Harry Thomas, this is a Filipino organization.”

ECPAT, an international organization with a chapter in the Philippines, stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes.

Still on tourism, Valte said the Philippines was “very hopeful” it would meet its target 4.6 million tourist arrivals this year.

“If January is any indication, it looks like we will hit the target and hopefully this will continue,” she said.

She said the government had been coordinating with various agencies to increase tourist arrivals in the country. Christine O. Avendaño