PH to announce steps to settle feud with HK

Secretary Rene Almendras INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

HONG KONG — Is a breakthrough in sight?

The Philippine government will announce in the next few days the “very concrete” steps it has taken to find a “final solution” and address the demands of the victims of the 2010 Manila hostage taking tragedy, a ranking Philippine official said here on Tuesday.

Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said there would be an announcement in the coming days about the “positive steps” Manila has taken after Hong Kong threatened to impose economic sanctions if the demands of the victims were not addressed within a month’s time.

Almendras, a close friend of President Aquino, did not rule out a presidential apology to the families of the hostage victims.

“I assure you, in a few days–in a day or two—the Philippines will prove that we are not insensitive to the plight of the victims or rude and that we want peace, with everyone working together without feuds,” Almendras said in a talk with Filipino community leaders at the Philippine Consulate General in Admiralty.

“In the next few days, you will begin to see with great clarity that the Aquino administration has not turned a blind eye or neglected the welfare of you Filipinos here in Hong Kong,” he added.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying threatened on Nov. 5 to impose unspecified sanctions on the Philippines should it fail to take concrete steps to address the demands of the victims.

Some Hong Kong legislators had even proposed banning Filipinos from working here.

There are presently an estimated 190,000 Filipinos – 160,000 of them domestic workers – in the former Crown colony.

Almendras said that Manila has taken “very concrete” steps to find a solution to the impasse about the hostage crisis but added that the “final solution” would be reached only if the victims and the Hong Kong government agreed.

“It won’t happen soon or in a day or two but I assure you quiet negotiations are on going,” Almendras said.

“If the negotiations are quiet, that just proves that we are not grand standing here. We are not being noisy so that it could just be said that we are doing something,” he added.

Almendras declined to give details and only said that Manila had taken “positive steps” to address all of the four demands of the victims’ families.

“Definitely, there are positive actions that have been done to try to bring this to a solution. All I can say work is being done. Yes, it’s very concrete,” he said.

The victims’ four demands include a formal apology, compensation, punishment for the negligent Philippine officials who handled the botched rescue with led to eight Hong Kong people dead, and measures to ensure the safety of foreign tourists in the Philippines.

“The discussions have been that there is more than one demand and all of those demands need to be addressed. If you only address two out of four, that is not acceptable. Even three out of four, it’s still not acceptable,” Almendras said.

“As we speak, there are real efforts to bring those four into a final solution…I assure you there will be announcements…that will show you that the Philippine government is not haughty, is not heartless, and has not ‘not done’ anything in trying to resolve the problem,” he added.

In explaining the Manila’s position on the matter, Almendras did not rule out an apology from Aquino.

“I know some of you here feel like `Why doesn’t the President just apologize to end this once and for all?”….If it were only that simple. If only the President could apologize and everything would be forgotten, including the China problem…done, I’m sure the President would do that,” Almendras said.

“(But) it’s not just about repercussions (of a presidential apology)…There are many other things involved. But we’re not even saying that he won’t apologize,” he said.

“And let us not be angry if there’s an apology because our objective here is to find a win-win solution,” he added.

Almendras noted that Philippines and Taiwan eventually patched things up after their relations deteriorated when Filipino Coast Guard personnel shot dead a Taiwanese fisherman.

“The Taiwan incident proves it all. By the way, I tell you the first C-130 (plane) that landed in Manila to bring relief goods (for Supertyphoon Yolanda or Haiyan victims) was from Taiwan. That’s how good our relations with Taiwan have become,” Almendras said.

“I hope that would also be our objective here but, like when you are courting someone, the win-win solution is for both sides to work together,” he added.

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