Senate President Migz Zubiri said that the Chinese Embassy should be at fault for calling the term ‘tourism blacklisting’ misinformation.
Zubiri maintained that Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian mentioned the blacklisting term a number of times during their meeting.
“I was shocked by the turnaround. I was shocked by the statement of the Embassy and it’s regrettable because we had several witnesses,” Zubiri said in an interview with reporters.
“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 added.
Zubiri said that other lawmakers like Win Gatchalian and Robin Padilla were present in the meeting and could testify that the word blacklisting was mentioned by the 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.
“Maybe… we were misinformed by the ambassador possibly. Kaya may witnesses eh. Tatatlo kaming senador nandun di naman siguro ako gagawa ng kwento,” he added.
Zubiri said that there is no apology needed following the exchange of statements between him and the Chinese Embassy.
“Ambassador Huang said that the Philippines now is part of a blacklist of tourist sites because they do not know if a tourist will be joining POGO operations and they don’t know if their nationals who go to the Philippines will be safe from illegal activities being done by the triad, by the syndicates operating POGOs,” he said..
“They may be kidnapped, mistaken for POGO operators. That’s the reason why there’s been a significant drop in Chinese tourists. By the way, they are the largest number of tourists pre-pandemic,” he added.
