A Filipino labor group, angry that the Philippine president doesn't plan to meet with migrant workers during her whirlwind one-day trip to Hong Kong today, said it is planning a protest when the leader arrives.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is scheduled to meet business leaders and officials as she tries to drum up investment for her country during her Hong Kong visit.
The trip comes amid a political storm back home, with opponents accusing her family of pocketing huge illegal gambling payoffs. They're also alleging that she rigged last year's election.
Arroyo has ordered an investigation of the graft accusations, but has refused to directly comment on the vote fraud allegations.
The United Filipinos in Hong Kong -- which calls itself an alliance of migrant organizations -- said it will try to confront Arroyo about the alleged vote rigging. The group also said the president should meet with the thousands of Filipino workers in Hong Kong.
"What fears does she have with the Filipino community here? What does she have to hide from us?" the group's secretary-general, Solores Balladares, said in a statement.
The group plans a picket protest at the Philippine Consulate General.
The millions of Filipinos -- mostly domestic helpers -- who work around the world have become an important part of the electorate since overseas Filipinos got the right to vote in last year's presidential election. Nearly 89,000 workers in Hong Kong registered to vote.
In Manila, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Arroyo's schedule is so tight that she would not be able to meet with the Filipino community.
Among those she's scheduled to meet are Tony Kwok, the former head of Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption and now the president's anti-corruption adviser, and Airport Authority Chairman Victor Fung, who will host a lunch in her honor.
Expected at the luncheon are representatives from several leading companies in Hong Kong, including Hopewell Holdings, Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., HSBC Holdings and Swire Pacific Ltd.
"President Gloria is expected to tell the Hong Kong businessmen that the Philippines provides best value for their investments and that there is so much to be positive about in the Philippines," Bunye said in a newspaper column to be published today.
Arroyo's Hong Kong trip is one of several to major Asian financial and business hubs. She will also make investment promotion trips to Singapore and Japan, but no dates have been announced, he said.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
‘DECREE 147’: Tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify accounts via phone numbers or IDs, and must provide users’ personal data to authorities on request New Vietnamese Internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force yesterday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression. Under “Decree 147,” all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth. They must provide that data to authorities on request and remove any content that the government regards as “illegal” within 24 hours. All social media sites had been given 90 days to provide data on “the
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
RSS