Singson fears losing ties with Hong Kong

By Myds Supnad

VIGAN CITY - A congressional representative of Ilocos Sur expressed fear Monday  that the Philippines might lose its strong ties with Hong Kong for the failure of the Executive branch to issue apology for the killing of eight Hong Kong nationals and injuring Nine in Luneta incident.

In his first privilege speech Monday afternoon, Rep. Ronald V. Singson, 1st district, Ilocos Sur, appealed to his fellow congressmen to extend apology for the infamous Luneta incident last August 23, 2010.

“If the Philippine President, who is the head of the Executive Branch of the national government, doesn't want to issue this much-requested simple apology to the people of Hong Kong, we in the Philippine Congress, as the representatives of the Filipino People and as a separate branch of the national government, are willing to issue an apology for this misunderstanding, between Filipinos and the Hong Kong people, to finally close its chapter.” Singson said.

A son of former governor Chavit Singson,  the young solon said “ I would like to call your attention regarding a place where many of us Filipino politicians, business leaders, and hundreds of thousands of OFWs have travelled to, while seeking rest and recreation for our families, transactions for our growing businesses, and opportunities for high- paying overseas employment. I am talking about a neighboring overseas location populated by a peace-loving and hardworking people we all know as Hong Kong. “

“We are in danger of losing our strong connection with this good neighbor in the North because the Executive Branch of our Government has remained stone-hearted to the request of the people of Hong Kong. We are about to weaken a very strong relationship that was established by our ancestors with hundreds of years of trade and friendship. Even our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal personally maintained this very strong relationship with Hong Kong, through his common-law wife Josephine Bracken, who was a resident of this beautiful and peace-loving city. “

Citing a Filipino correspondent’s report in the Gulfnews.com, Singson said due to what happened at the Quirino Grandstand that night, the lawmakers in Hong Kong passed a resolution calling on Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying to impose sanctions against the Philippines, and to make it hard for Filipinos to continue working there.

Singson said in his speech that “for everybody's information, Hong Kong is considered as the fifth richest city in the world and is providing a good future for more than 150,000 Filipinos and for more than half a million relatives of these OFWs. What if the Hong Kong Chief Executive called the Chief Executive of the Philippines to personally inform him of the status of Filipino casualties in a tragic disaster or calamity in Hong Kong, shown live in the world-media? Will the people in Malacanang still mention “protocol” and tell the Hong Kong Chief Executive to inform the Philippine President through traditional channels? I guess not. We should have shown a more sympathetic approach in comforting our traumatized Hong Kong neighbors by doing everything that can be done to relieve them of their sudden grief during that time and to finally remove any distrust among Filipinos and Hong Kong residents. “

“To the people of Hong Kong, we do not ignore that Hong Kong is a very rich city and many overseas workers prefer to work there, especially our very own OFWs,” said Singson.

Working Abroad is what we, Filipinos, are sometimes famous for and we call our OFWs as our modern Heroes. They are helping our government to enrich our economy and they contribute also in the development of your city, added Singson.

“We would like to convey our national voice in extending a formal apology to our seven million-strong, peace-loving Asian brothers and sisters in Hong Kong. I now enjoin my brother Filipino leaders in the House of Representatives to be united in finally closing that tragic 2010 chapter in the history of our two lands by co-sponsoring my House resolution which will finally settle this great misunderstanding between two very friendly groups of people in Southeast Asia; Hong Kong and the Philippines.