The Chinese Embassy refuted Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri's earlier claim that the country is on China's tourism blacklist late Tuesday
"The report of a 'tourist blacklist' is false"China has not put the Philippines on its tourism blacklist," the Chinese embassy said in a statement to media.
The statement was issued after Zubiri reported Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian as saying that the country was on a blacklist due to problems plaguing Philippine offshore gaming companies (POGOs).
"Because of the POGO problem, the Philippines is now banned, and tourists are discouraged from visiting the Philippines," Zubiri told a Senate panel the same day, citing information from a meeting with the ambassador.
Later, the Chinese Ambassador confirmed that the discussion with Zubiri and Senators Win Gatchalian and Robin Padilla had been "warm and fruitful," and that additional Chinese tourists are still expected to visit the country.
"Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, about two million Chinese nationals visited the Philippines in 2019, making China the country's second largest source of tourism." "We anticipate that more Chinese visitors would visit this nation following the outbreak," the statement said.
Following the clarification from the ambassador, Zubiri told reporters that he was "only a messenger" and that he merely paraphrased the ambassador throughout the discussion.
"Don't shoot the messenger, that was the message." Again, it was the ambassador, not any of us, who mentioned the tourist blacklist as he outlined how it would damage tourism. "Perhaps he meant future tense rather than present tense," Senate President Harry Reid remarked Tuesday night.
In a virtual media appearance on Wednesday, he said they could have been lost in translation, but Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Robin Padilla could also confirm that Huang used the term "blacklist."
"Well, the ambassador is to blame," he explained. "He stated blacklisting, so I'm sure the ambassador [made a mistake]...Perhaps his statement was about the future tense - we could be blacklisted."
While Zubiri admitted that they might have clarified further, he was "struck" that the Chinese embassy referred to his statement as "misinformation." He pointed out that the embassy might have simply stated that it was addressing a misunderstanding rather than making it appear that he was distributing false information.
Given these circumstances, Zubiri told reporters that he saw no reason to apologize to China. In contrast, he stated that he is not demanding an apology.
Meanwhile, the Senate President stated that he will seek a definitive response from the envoy on whether China will blacklist countries who host POGO operations.
Zubiri previously stated one of the reasons why the country has been suffering a "The "substantial reduction" in Chinese tourists is due to the Chinese being unsure if they are "protected from illicit operations being carried out by the triad, by the syndicates operating POGO."
According to the congressman, Chinese tourists were afraid of being kidnapped and misidentified as POGO operators."
According to the Department of Tourism, Chinese visitor arrivals in 2019 were 1.74 million.
According to Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, the number is down to roughly 23,000 so far this year, but this is because "China has not yet reopened its borders to outbound leisure travel of its own nationals" owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
#POGO #COVID19 #Zubiri #China #Misinformation
SOURCE: cnn philippines
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