It seems like nakuryente si Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri—one of the top four officials of the land—when he announced yesterday that the Philippines is now in China’s tourism blacklist because of continued POGO operations here.
What’s the real score—Has China put the Philippines on the blacklist for tourism or not?
Just yesterday Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri announced at the Senate that China has included the Philippines on its tourism blacklist, meaning Chinese nationals would be barred from entering or visiting the Philippines.
And then today, the Chinese Embassy—the same source of Zubiri—denied and clarified that the Philippines is not on China’s tourism blacklist. Did they play on Zubiri’s gullibility, considering he is among the top four leaders of the country?
The embassy made the clarification after Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said that the Philippines was on the blacklist for continuing to allow Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) to do business.
“The report of ‘tourist blacklist’ is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism,” the Chinese Embassy told reporters in a message.
Earlier, during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday, Zubiri said that the Philippines was on the blacklist.
“Ambassador Huang [Xilian] said that the Philippines now is part of a blacklist of tourist sites because they do not know if the tourist going there will be operating or will be joining POGO operations,” Zubiri said, a day after he met with the envoy.
He also attributed the decline in Chinese tourists in the Philippines to the blacklist.Unmute
“They do not know if Chinese nationals who go to the Philippines will be safe from illegal activities being done by the triad, by the syndicates operating Pogos. They may also be kidnapped and mistaken for POGO operators. So, that is the reason why there’s been a drop, a significant drop of Chinese tourists,” the Senate President said.
By now we should not be surprised at China’s flip flopping. Remember, China promised to finance most of the projects of former President Duterte’s mega infrastructure program BuildBuildBuild. But so far, not one renminbi came.
Tags: #Zubiri, #ChineseEmbassy, #China’stourismblaclist, #Phl.,#misinformation