By DJ Yap, Juliet Labog-Javellana
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: December 12, 2010

And the Philippine government stayed away from the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese democracy activist because the lives of at least five Filipinos with no reprieve on death row in China are at stake.

Not sending a representative to the Nobel ceremony for detained Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo does not mean the Philippines is not championing democracy and human rights, President Benigno Aquino said.

It is just that the human rights and lives of Filipinos come first, Mr. Aquino candidly told the Inquirer. The government position drew howls of protests from human rights advocates here and abroad.

"Our interest [is] to advance our citizens' needs first," he said on Friday night, adding that he did not want to jeopardize efforts to spare five Filipinos sentenced to death for drug trafficking in China.

He said he had already sent a letter to the Chinese government seeking clemency for the doomed Filipino workers.

It was the first time Mr. Aquino, the only son of the late democracy icons former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino, talked about the latest controversy to hit his six-month-old administration.

"It's in our national interest that we do not at this time send a representative to the Nobel award rites. But we remain firmly committed to human rights," he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has denied that China pressured the Philippines into boycotting the event. It said Philippine Ambassador to Norway Elizabeth Buensuceso had to attend a previously scheduled consular event in Denmark.

2 other reasons

Mr. Aquino cited two other reasons for foregoing attendance in the Nobel ceremony.

He admitted that the Philippine government was in the process of achieving "closure" with China on the Aug. 23 hostage crisis in Manila where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

A top-level delegation to be led by Vice President Jejomar Binay and Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim is expected to meet with Chinese government officials next week to officially convey the results of the investigation on the botched hostage rescue.

The President said he was also concerned about the safety of Filipinos who might be affected by the tension between South Korea and North Korea. He said the government wanted to stabilize the situation for the Filipinos in the two Koreas.

China has moved to mediate between its ally North Korea and US ally South Korea.

Nine Filipinos are in North Korea, while 50,000 are in South Korea, the President said.

High-level, low-key

The DFA through its spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said Philippine diplomats in China were working quietly on the "judicial and political fronts" to save the five Filipinos on death row.

On the phone with the Inquirer, Malaya said the Filipinos' drug trafficking cases were under review by the People's Supreme Court of China.

He said the "high-level and low-key" efforts by the Philippine embassy in Beijing involved assisting the Filipino prisoners in filing their appeals as well as relaying requests for clemency to Chinese officials through legal and diplomatic channels.

Malaya would not confirm if the President had sent a letter to the Chinese government appealing the cases of the five Filipinos.

He said that these cases were especially sensitive and that any statement should be couched with caution. He noted the unfortunate case of Akmal Shaikh, a Pakistan-born Briton, who was executed in 2009 after and despite public appeals for clemency by then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, plunging the two countries in a diplomatic row.

Malaya said the five were the only Filipinos technically on death row, even though about 70 other Filipinos had been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in China.

"These five have no reprieve. All the others have a two-year reprieve, and with good behavior, they have a good chance of having their sentence automatically commuted to life imprisonment," he said.

He added that the People's Supreme Court of China had not handed down a decision on the five Filipinos, and that it was not yet clear when it would be handed down.

'US-led issue'?

China has condemned the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on Xiaobo, who was sentenced in December 2009 to 11 years in jail for subversion following his call for reform in China's one-party communist rule.

China and 18 other countries, including the Philippines, did not send representatives to the ceremony where an empty chair stood for the imprisoned Xiaobo. At least 45 countries were reported to have attended the ceremony, which was also graced by high-ranking US officials.

Not between US, China

That the controversy against countries that boycotted the Nobel ceremony could be a "US-led politically charged issue" against China was not lost on Mr. Aquino.

The President said the issue does not boil down between Beijing and Washington. "This is about the Philippines and our citizens."

He said some American officials had sent feelers about withdrawing some US grants to the Philippines.

The officials did not say whether the threat was connected to the Nobel issue. But Mr. Aquino said he felt that the "timing" of the message was suspicious.

Mr. Aquino's move was reminiscent of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's decision in 2004 to withdraw the Philippine peacekeeping force from Iraq after kidnappers threatened to kill Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz in Baghdad.

The withdrawal of the 51-strong Philippine contingent angered the US government led by then President George W. Bush.