Aquino refuses to apologise

(Credit: SCMP)

The Philippine president said it was no the Filipino culture to apologise for actions committed by others.

At an evening meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia, President Benigno Aquino III again refused to apologise for the 2010 Manila hostage tragedy. Survivors argued the Philippine government was responsible for the mishandling.

Aquino stated there was one lone gunman responsible for this tragedy. ‘We cannot admit wrongdoing if it’s not ours. But we do extend our sincerest condolences,’ he said.

Tse Chi-kin, brother of the deceased tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn, called Aquino’s words ‘nonsense’, as the Philippine Department of Justice had already cited seven officials for problems in the rescue operations. ‘It is impossible for that government to state it has nothing to do with it,’ Tse told Cable TV.

But the meeting did see a slight shift in Aquino’s stance. According to Leung, Aquino insisted at the beginning that ‘the matter has been resolved’, only for him later to tell Philippine press they still had work to do.

Aquino also said ‘there was a clarification as to what each side has been doing, why the perceptions of each side is such. We’re working to put that behind us.’

Premier Li Keqiang has urged President Aquino to resolve the row over the Manila bus hostage crisis as soon as possible, taking the impasse to a new diplomatic level. Families of the victims and political analysts described it as a ‘breakthrough’.

Li said the incident had ‘dragged on for long’ enough and had ‘affected the feelings of the people in China, especially the compatriots in Hong Kong’.

However, one observer noted that given the tensions between the two countries over territorial claims in the South China Sea, it might not have an immediate impact.