{"id":222980,"date":"2019-07-15T19:51:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-15T23:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222980"},"modified":"2019-07-15T19:51:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T23:51:31","slug":"govt-open-to-cutting-ties-with-iceland-panelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/15\/govt-open-to-cutting-ties-with-iceland-panelo\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t open to cutting ties with Iceland: Panelo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Senator Imee Marcos urged the government to cut ties with Iceland, stressing that other countries cannot presume to know better on how to enforce the Philippines\u2019 own laws. (PCOO File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The government is open to cutting ties with Iceland, a Palace official said Monday after the Nordic Island-country sponsored a resolution approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to look into the\u00a0human rights violations in the Philippines<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Senator Imee Marcos urged the government to cut ties with Iceland, stressing that other countries cannot presume to know better on how to enforce the Philippines\u2019 own laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cPag ang isang bansa ay nagpapahayag ng mga posisyon na makakasira sa ating kasarinlan o\u00a0<\/em>sovereignty, kailangan talagang putulin natin ang relasyon natin sa kanila<\/em>\u00a0(If a country is making statements that may damage our sovereignty, there is a need to cut ties with them),\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, clarified that this was only his own opinion on the matter and he would leave the final decision to President Rodrigo Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cHayaan natin ang Pangulo ng bansa na magbigay ng pang-tapos na posisyon dito sapagkat<\/em>\u00a0(Let us leave it to the President to make the final position on the matter because) he is the chief architect of foreign policy in our country,\u201d said Panelo who is also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Locsin and Duterte) will have to factor in every circumstance that could lead to the cutting of ties,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said although cutting ties with Iceland would barely affect Filipino workers there, the government will consider all factors in deciding whether or not to proceed with the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow will it affect us?\u00a0Ano bang relasyon natin sa<\/em>\u00a0(What relation do we have with) Iceland in the first place?\u00a0Ni wala tayong<\/em>\u00a0embassy\u00a0doon e. Wala rin sila dito e<\/em>\u00a0(We don\u2019t have an embassy there. They don\u2019t have an embassy here either),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaano ba karami<\/em>\u00a0(How many Filipinos are working and living there)? All of that are taken into consideration. What is the best interest of the country, we will pursue,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Not a UN vote<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked if government should also consider cutting ties with the 18 UN-member countries who supported Iceland\u2019s proposal, Panelo said it is worth taking a \u201cserious look\u201d in the Philippines\u2019 relationship with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we should take a serious look in our relationship with them. For all we know, they may be the ones taking a second look given the brouhaha that brought about this vote,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo said he does not consider the resolution a UN resolution since there was no \u201csimple majority\u201d in the voting results.<\/p>\n

Out of the UN body\u2019s 47 members, 18 countries supported Iceland\u2019s proposal, 14 countries including the Philippines voted against it, while the remaining 15 abstained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no simple majority here. It\u2019s in fact an overwhelming rejection because only 18 votes as against gets 14 votes denying the resolution and 15 of them did not register a yes vote which means these 15 are not inclined to make a definite stand in relation to that resolution,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIbig sabihin<\/em>\u00a0(It means), it\u2019s not a UN vote,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ask, don\u2019t prejudge<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo said if the UN body is really serious in looking into the country\u2019s campaign against illegal drugs, they should have first written a formal communication or inquiry asking for government data.<\/p>\n

\u201cPero hindi nila ginagawa \u2018yon. Hinayaan nilang makinig sa mga kasinungalingang nakakarating sa kanila sa mga walang batayang pahayag ng mga kalaban ng<\/em>\u00a0administration (But they didn\u2019t do that. They allowed themselves to listen to the baseless lies made by enemies of this administration),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that the Duterte administration is the only administration that has always responded to formal communications sent to their offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cLahat ng nangyayari diyan sa digmaan laban sa droga ay nakatala, recorded lahat yan e<\/em>\u00a0(Everything happening in the war on drugs is recorded). All they have to do is to ask us, not to prejudge us,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to believe what this government tells them because this government doesn\u2019t lie. It behooves them to render respect to a sovereign state,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Despite willingness to provide the UN body with answers, Panelo said it is still \u201cdiscretionary\u201d on the part of a sovereign government to respond or not to any question relative to anything concerning state affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we feel that the question is legitimate, we will respond but if the question is only designed to fish information that it will use by the inquiring country to embarrass this government, certainly, we will not oblige,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 The government is open to cutting ties with Iceland, a Palace official said Monday after the Nordic Island-country sponsored …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":220626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222981,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222980\/revisions\/222981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}