Manila mayor Estrada plans visit to Hong Kong to apologise
Manila mayor wants to appease Hong Kong over 2010 hostage crisis and appeals for city to lift the travel ban against his country
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada will use a trip to Hong Kong next month to reiterate his apology for the 2010 bus hostage tragedy, after survivors and relatives of the killed rejected an apology he made soon after taking office.
Estrada, mayor since July, made the pledge during a South China Morning Post interview.
Up until last night, Hong Kong's Security Bureau had not been informed about his planned visit, a spokesman said.
Estrada did not say if a meeting with any of the 14 Hong Kong survivors, the bereaved or Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was on the agenda, but a meeting was being arranged with "a senior Hong Kong leader".
"I'll try to appease them, to renew our friendship with Hong Kong," he told the Post in an exclusive interview. "I'd say I'm very sorry for the unfortunate incident … I'll apologise for that.
"And as incumbent mayor of Manila, I'll want to assure them [similar tragedies] will not happen during my incumbency. I'll see to it that every Hong Kong [resident] is very safe here in Manila. I will appeal for the travel ban to be lifted."
Hong Kong has a black travel alert on the Philippines, which advises against all travel to the country. The alert has been in place since a rogue former policeman killed seven Hong Kong tourists and their guide, and injured seven others, in Manila's Rizal Park on August 23, 2010.