Yung trouble shooter ni PNoy...

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/i...11/february/25

Roxas subtly rebuffs Taiwanese gestures

FORMER Senator Manuel Roxas II, who bore the brunt of Taiwanese anger over Manila’s deportation of 14 Taiwan nationals to Beijing, showed his displeasure Tuesday by declining a ride to the airport and a lunch invitation by the deputy foreign minister, an official said Thursday.

After a final meeting with Taiwanese Foreign Minister Timothy C. T. Yang on Tuesday, Roxas refused to ride in the official car provided by the Taiwanese government and took another vehicle to the airport instead, said Amadeo Perez Jr., the Philippines’ de facto ambassador to Taiwan.

Perez said Roxas road in a service vehicle provided by the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, the agency taking care of Manila’s affairs with Taiwan and which Perez heads.

Roxas also declined the request of Deputy Foreign Minister Matthew Lee to have a lunch meeting with him at the airport lounge. Instead, Roxas chose to eat in a roadside restaurant with Perez and other MECO officials before going to the airport, Perez said.

The ties between Manila and Taipei became tenuous after Manila deported the 14 Taiwanese, who were suspected of running a scam to victimize Chinese nationals, to China instead of Taiwan.

Roxas met with Taiwanese officials over the row on Monday but refused to offer an apology, saying his mandate was to seek understanding and not to apologize.

President Benigno Aquino III sent him to Taipei on Monday to explain why Manila had deported the 14 Taiwanese to China instead of sending them to Taiwan.

Perez said that during the 12-hour marathon meeting with Roxas, the Taiwanese side presented Manila with three options: return the 14 Taiwanese deportees to Taiwan, offer an apology to Taiwan, or order an investigation and pinpoint who was responsible for the wrongful deportation.

Any of those three options “would signify a kind of apology,” Perez said.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency, meanwhile, quoted Kuomintang lawmaker Lin Yu-fang as saying Manila’s decision to send Roxas as a special emissary to Taiwan should be interpreted as a form of apology and urged the government to be flexible in discussing a resolution to the stand-off.

“The fact that the Philippines sent an emissary to Taiwan is already a gesture of an apology,” said Lin, a member of the Foreign and National Defense Committee.

“Flexibility is a must in all diplomatic negotiations. What should be considered is how a total breakdown in Taiwan-Philippines relations would affect Taiwan’s diplomacy.” Eric B. Apolonio