President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said he wants to talk to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian “soon” to discuss his unexpected comments regarding overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.
The Chief Executive made the pronouncement on the sidelines of a housing event several days after Huang told the Philippines to resist “Taiwan independence” by prohibiting American troops from using Philippine military bases if it genuinely cared about the 150,000 OFWs residing on the autonomous island.”
“I’ll be talking to the ambassador soon and I’m sure he will be very anxious to give his own interpretation of what he was trying to say. We were all a little surprised, but I just put it down to a difference in language,” Marcos said.
The President pointed out the hubbub might have resulted from a translation issue, considering that English is not the Chinese ambassador’s primary language.
The Chinese Embassy said Huang’s statement on the OFWs and the United States’ enhanced access to Philippine military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was “misquoted.”
A transcript of Huang’s statement had him saying that some individuals had attempted to justify the new EDCA sites by referring to the safety of the 150,000 OFWs in Taiwan.
He said that China was the last country that wanted to see conflict arise over the Taiwan Strait because both sides were comprised of Chinese people.
“Some tried to find (an) excuse for the new EDCA sites by citing the safety of the 150,000 OFWs in Taiwan, while China is the last country that wishes to see conflict over the Strait because people on both sides are Chinese,” the transcript showed Huang had said.
“The Philippines is advised to unequivocally oppose Taiwan independence rather than stoking the fire by offering the US access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait if you genuinely care about the 150,000 OFWs,” Huang had said.
Marcos said he was “very interested” to know what the ambassador meant, adding that he interpreted the statement as Huang telling the Philippine government “not to provoke or intensify” the tensions as “it may impact badly” on the OFWs.
“We were all a little surprised, but I just put it down to the difference of language,” Marcos said.
After facing criticism for Huang’s comments, the Chinese Embassy accused journalists of either misquoting or misunderstanding the ambassador and urged the public to refer to the “original text of the speech.”
Huang has not commented on his controversial statement.
Marcos has reassured China that the new EDCA sites were not a concern.
In a related story, Senator Raffy Tulfo described the Chinese ambassador as a “bully” for “threatening” the jobs of OFWs in Taiwan.
Tulfo on Wednesday lambasted Huang for his “irresponsible statement.”
“Huang Xilian (is) a bully who is not contented that China is harassing Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea and is now using OFWs as hostages amid its issue with Taiwan,” he said.
Tulfo scored Huang for exploiting the innocent OFWs working in Taiwan to cover up China’s massive manipulation of the issues at hand.
“To Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian, this is not acceptable, and we will never bow down to this kind of bullying,” he said.
Tulfo, who chairs the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers, has vowed to keep safe all OFWs in Taiwan from the ongoing tension between China and Taiwan.
“Don’t worry, we won’t leave you behind,” Tulfo said in his message to the OFWs.