My sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs wished President Noynoy could just have kept quiet. Our ambassador to Oslo could not attend the Nobel awards ceremony because of a previous engagement – period. That would have been polite and acceptable. After all, no one should dictate what party we go to whether the host is Chinese or American.
President Noynoy would have spared himself unwanted criticism if he left it at diplomatic level, but he went on to say that the Philippines was ‘boycotting’ the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for the sake of five Filipinos in the death row. The five were accused as drug mules and in China that is punishable by death.
In the first place, China had already made it clear that they were not boycotting the ceremonial awards. They just did not agree with the award to Lin Xiaobo citing Alfred Nobel’s own criteria for the peace award. That was conveyed to the selection committee after the decision to give the Chinese agitator the peace award two months ago.
Of the other countries that did not come to the awards we can only guess why but none made any statements or gave any reasons. As a Chinese friend said to me, how could China pressure Russia to “boycott” the ceremony or Saudi Arabia or Egypt? For whatever reason it is understandable for Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran to skip the event.
Maybe he was trying to do an “Arroyo” by saying the Philippines boycotted the awards for the sake of five Filipinos in the death row accused of being drug mules in Beijing. Remember that the former president was vilified in the Western press for standing by Angelo de la Cruz but he was a hostage, not a drug mule.
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