House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza yesterday lauded President Duterte for offering government’s apology for the death of eight Hong Kong nationals during a hostage taking incident eight years ago.
“This shows statesmanship of the highest caliber,” Atienza said.
Duterte’s act put an end to the years of diplomatic irritant between leaders of Hong Kong and the Philippines when then President Benigno S. Aquino III ignored demands that he apologize for the bungled attempt to free visiting Hong Kong nationals from a deranged suspended police officer who took them hostage on Aug. 23, 2010.
“Our brother and sister Filipinos living and working in Hong Kong have suffered for eight years because of the lingering effects of this festering sore in Manila-Hong Kong relations – something which could have easily been averted if only the national and local leadership in Manila at that time focused on admitting their fault in the mismanaged and botched rescue operations which resulted in eight deaths,” said Atienza.
“It takes much more than arrogant leadership to deal with the effects of such a high-profile incident which unfolded before world media,” the former Manila Mayor said.
Atienza was apparently referring to Aquino and his successor as Manila chief executive, former Mayor Alfredo S. Lim. (Ben R. Rosario)
