Philippine envoy won't apologise

Despite the arrival of an unofficial Philippine government envoy, sent to try to patch up relations between Taipei and Manila, settlement of the row sparked when Manila deported 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to the mainland appears nowhere in sight.

In a meeting with Taiwanese foreign minister Timothy Yang Chin-tien in Taipei yesterday, former Philippine senator Manuel Roxas stopped short of offering any apology to Taipei - a repeated demand of the island's government.

Roxas merely said he was in Taipei at the instruction of Philippine President Benigno Aquino to take care of the 'very, very important matter'.

'I bring with me my president's good wishes for you, President Ma [Ying-jeou] and the Taiwanese people, and his sincere and deep desire to mend whatever misunderstandings and difficulties this recent unfortunate event might have caused in our otherwise good relationship,' Roxas said.

His remarks apparently failed to ease the wrath of Taipei, which has repeatedly protested and demanded a formal apology from the Philippine government after it sent 14 Taiwanese and 10 mainland fraud suspects to face prosecution on the mainland.

Manila ignored a request from Taipei for the Taiwanese to be sent back to Taiwan and sent all 24 to the mainland on February 2, a move criticised in Taiwan as showing a lack of respect for the island's dignity and sovereignty.