Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1299293/hong-kong-right-keep-black-travel-alert-philippines
Comment/ Opinion

Hong Kong is right to keep black travel alert on the Philippines

Alice Wu says the travel alert on the Philippines should stay until victims of the Manila hostage crisis get the justice they deserve

Manila mayor Joseph Estrada apologised for the tragedy, but the apology wasn't his to make. Photo: EPA

It has been three years since the Manila hostage crisis, yet survivors and victims' families still wait for the justice they deserve, and so the Philippines remains "black" on the Hong Kong government's travel alert list. Some see it as nonsensical, since the travel alert has done little to get the Philippine government to budge. Certainly, it has proved ineffective.

Sure, the new Manila mayor (and the country's ex-president) Joseph Estrada apologised for the tragedy last week. But it's puzzling since the apology wasn't his to make. Whether it was sincere is irrelevant. All Estrada can be sorry for is his president's and his predecessor's inability to say sorry.