Taiwan eyes hiring freeze

Talks to settle row with Taipei turns sour

TAIWANESE President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday said that Taipei is angered and disappointed by the Philippine government’s refusal to apologize over the deportation of 14 Taiwan residents to mainland China instead of to the island, adding that they are considering to freeze permanently the hiring of Filipino workers.

Through a translated interview, Ma said that “the government and the people of Taiwan are angered and disappointed at the refusal of the Philippine government to apologize and take full responsibility for its mistake.”

“Taiwan is [also] considering a permanent freeze in the hiring of Filipino workers,” he added.

“Future relations between our two countries will hinge on your government’s follow-up measures,” Ma was quoted as telling former Sen. Manuel “Mar’ Roxas 2nd when they met on Monday in Taipei.

Roxas met with Ma as President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s personal emissary to iron things out with Taipei, which is angered by the deportation of 14 of its residents to mainland China on February 2.

Ma said that the Philippine government committed at least three grave mistakes in the deportation of the Taiwanese.

“Your officials’ claims were sheer lies,” Ma said through a translator. He was referring to the decision of the Bureau of Immigration to deport the Taiwanese on the basis that they were “undocumented.”

The 14 Taiwan residents were nabbed by forces of the National Bureau of Investigation and Chinese officials in December on allegations that they were involved in a multimillion international fraud scam. They are facing charges in China.

Ma also said that the Philippine government violated its own laws when it disregarded the writ of habeas corpus issued by the Court of Appeals.
“Ignoring your own country’s law was not what a democratic country should have done,” he said.

The Taiwan president said that he only agreed to meet with Roxas because of Manila and Taipei’s long-standing friendship.

In a separate statement, Taiwan Council of Labor Affairs Chairman Jennifer Wang said that they may have to take serious punitive measures after the Philippine government refused to apologize to Taiwan.

“If the final outcome is not what we have expected, we may have to take serious measures, including freeze the hiring of Filipino workers,” she said.

Wang added that the council has devised a contingency to respond to the possible freeze hiring of Filipino workers. There are about 100,000 Filipino workers in Taiwan, mostly working in the industry and household sectors.

Palace firm on stand

Earlier on Tuesday, Malacanang said that issuing an apology to the Taiwanese government would be implying that the Philippines made a mistake in deporting the 14 Taiwanese to mainland China.

During a briefing in Malacanang, spokesman Edwin Lacierda maintained that the government will not apologize to Taiwan over the deportation issue, saying that there is an ongoing investigation on the matter.

“There is still a case going on so it would be too presumptuous for us to immediately apologize for something which we don’t know if we have violated anything,” he said.

Lacierda was referring to the case filed before the appellate court by the lawyers of six of the 14 deported Taiwanese.

“As far as we are concerned, we have done the processes properly but that is now subject of a case and that’s something that we will have to wait for the outcome,” he added.

Lacierda maintained that the government deported the 14 Taiwanese to China to protect the interest of the Philippines.

“The position of this government is that we have done everything legally and properly,” he said.

“Based on the account made by [Justice] Secretary Leila de Lima, there was a red flag from the Interpol and when their [14 Taiwanese] identification was being requested. They failed to present proper identification and in that regard, we did what was the proper thing to do,” Lacierda added.

De Lima earlier said the 14 Taiwanese were deported to China because they could not produce their original travel documents. –BERNICE CAMILLE V. BAUZON REPORTER with report from Cris G. Odronia, Manila Times

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