ReinaDESur
The Duterte administration issued a ban on entry to two US senators after they supported an opposition female Philippine congresswoman.
"The government immediately ordered the Immigration Bureau to refuse to allow Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy to enter the Philippines," Salvador Panelo, a spokesman for the president of the Philippines, told a regular news conference today.
US Senator Richard Durbin answered the reporter's question in Washington, DC on September 17 Photo: Reuters
Panelo explained that the two senators were barred from entry because they proposed a provision to oppose the prosecution of Philippine senator Leila de Lima into the US Defense Authorization Act 2020. Ms de Lima was charged with drug trafficking in early 2017, after leading a mass murder investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign.
He said that Senator de Lima was not "a persecuted person" but a suspect being prosecuted. "We will not sit still if they continue to interfere with our treatment as a sovereign state," Panelo said.
Presidential spokesman Duterte said if the United States refused to let any Filipino official enter the country due to the arrest of de Lima at the request of Durbin and Leahy, the Philippines would require all US citizens to come to the country. visa.
The US Embassy in Manila has not yet commented on the incident.
Philippines visa-free entry up to 30 days with US citizens. 792,000 Americans came to the Philippines in the first nine months of this year, accounting for nearly 13% of foreign visitors, according to government data.
Duterte did not hide his harsh attitude towards the US, even though Washington was the Philippines' largest defense ally. He often accused the United States of meddling and hypocrisy, although he admitted that most Filipinos and the military took the country very seriously.
De Lima, a former Philippine justice minister, said on Thursday his deep gratitude to the US congress. She repeatedly voiced her opposition to Duterte and called for an international investigation into his war on drugs, in which thousands were killed after police allegedly committed drug offenses against arrest.
