Taiwan will soon lift all punitive sanctions on the Philippines, ending a row that has lasted more than a month over Manila's deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to the mainland to face prosecution.
The latest development came after the Philippines sacked two senior immigration officials and again expressed 'deep regrets', actions seen by Taiwan's authorities as 'a kind of apology'.
The rift between the two governments opened early last month after Manila ignored a deportation request from Taipei and sent the Taiwanese suspects to Beijing to face charges over their alleged involvement in massive phone frauds on the mainland.
'We expect that our two sides will discuss follow-up measures, which we believe will facilitate the removal of the current measures,' Taiwanese Foreign Minister Timothy Yang said yesterday.
Taiwan imposed punitive measures including delaying by four months the screening of Filipino workers' employment applications, revoking the visa-waiver for Filipino visitors with visas issued by the US, European Union and other developed countries, and the recall of Taiwan's representative to Manila.
Yang said Philippine presidential envoy Manuel Roxas was expected to visit Taipei again next week to patch up relations. Roxas visited Taiwan late last month, but returned empty handed after Taipei refused to compromise and demanded that the Philippines issue a formal apology.