PHL hands off of China-Hong Kong crisis, only has OFWs in mind —expert

Published October 8, 2019 8:58pm

The Philippine government will keep its hands off of the political crisis in Hong Kong, a geopolitical analyst said on Tuesday

In a public forum, Dr. Rommel Banlaoi said the Philippines would only focus on protecting the estimated 150,000 OFWs and business interests of Filipino entrepreneurs in the special administrative region of China.

“Hong Kong is an integral part of China… The Philippines regards the Hong Kong political crisis as an internal affair of the People’s Republic of China and therefore we will not interfere in their domestic affairs,” Banlaoi said.

“Hands off ang Pilipinas diyan,” he added.

Banlaoi said main interest of the Philippines when it came to Hong Kong would be the safety of the Filipino migrant workers and Filipino businessmen “with a lot of investments in Hong Kong and lots of real properties in Hong Kong.”

However, Banlaoi said that the crisis in Hong Kong was no longer an internal affair as it had become “an issue of major power competition [among] the United States, China and the rest of the world, particularly Western powers.” Read more…