Senate President and wannabe Chinese Embassy spokesperson Juan Miguel Zubiri downplayed Tuesday (October 11) his apparently misleading claim that the Philippines has been blacklisted as a tourist destination by China, saying the remark made by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian to him must’ve been “lost in translation.”
The Chinese Embassy issued a statement denying that the Philippines has been included in China’s tourism blacklist. It called Zubiri’s claim “misinformation.”
READ MORE: Maling mali si Zubiri! Chinese Embassy denies PH on tourism blacklist
In a separate statement, the Senate President said it was Huang who mentioned the word “blacklist” when they met Monday (October 10) at the Senate along with some senators.
“During our meeting with Ambassador Huang, the tone of his statement was that the Philippines is already being watched as tourist hotspots and have been warning their countrymen of possible crimes that could happen to them due to POGO,” he said.
“Maybe it was lost in translation and what the good Ambassador meant was we could be possibly blacklisted as he mentioned they do that to countries who promote gambling for their countrymen. The word Blacklist came from the good Ambassador and not from the Senators so truly there is a strong possibility that we are either already in the list or could be added on that list if POGOs continue to proliferate in our country,” Zubiri added.
The Senate President said that while he respects the Chinese Embassy’s clarification, he believes Huang’s “message was loud and clear” that POGOs are illegal in China and Beijing wants the Philippines to stop hosting POGOs.
“That was the message, don’t shoot the messenger. Again it was the ambassador who said the tourism Blacklist. Not any one of us. As he discussed how it could affect tourism. So maybe he meant future tense and not present tense,” Zubiri said.
He said Huang should be asked if countries that “heavily promote gambling” for the Chinese whether physically or online could be included in China’s tourism blacklist.
Zubiri won his first term as a senator as a result of electoral fraud. The Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled in 2011 that vote padding and shaving was evident in the results of 2,658 precincts in Mindanao which were questioned by Aquilino Pimentel III, the 13th placer in the 2007 senatorial race.
He resigned from the Senate after concrete proof of poll fraud emerged. Pimentel, who had 258,166 more votes than Zubiri, was sworn in as senator in August 2011.
