MANILA – The Chinese Embassy in Manila on Tuesday night formally denied that China has included the Philippines in its tourism blacklist.
“The report of ‘tourist blacklist’ is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism,” it said.
The embassy issued a separate statement noting that “tourism is an important component of practical cooperation between China and the Philippines” and that it expects “more Chinese tourists to come to this country after the pandemic.”
The clarification was made in response to the information cited by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri from a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian that the Philippines had been blacklisted due to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) operating in the country.
“It was lost in translation and what the good Ambassador meant was we could be possible blacklisted as he mentioned they do that to countries who promote gambling for their countrymen,” Zubiri said in a statement posted on Facebook.
He stated that the Senate respected the statement as one of careful diplomacy as the Chinese Embassy did not want to raise “any diplomatic alarm bells.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Zubiri appealed.
In response to developing gambling overseas destinations enticing Chinese tourists, the Chinese government established a blacklist system for tourist sites in 2020.
Legislators have sought on many instances to ban POGO operations in the nation in response to reported crimes associated with it, including murder, kidnapping, fraud, and prostitution, typically involving Chinese nationals.
According to Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on Dangerous Drugs earlier, at least 300,000 Chinese tourists have entered the country since 2016 and most of them ended up as POGO workers.
The Chinese Embassy emphasized in its previous statement that Beijing firmly opposes POGO operations.
“Crimes induced by and associated with POGO not only harm China’s interests and China-Philippines relations but also hurt the interests of the Philippines,” it said.
“It is therefore widely believed that social costs of POGO far outweigh its economic benefits to the Philippines in the long run and POGO should be tackled from the root so as to address the social ills in a sweeping manner.”
