Conchita Carpio-Morales, ex-Philippine Supreme Court judge and staunch critic of Xi Jinping, says she will never visit Hong Kong again after ‘immigration ordeal’

A former Philippine Supreme Court associate justice and staunch critic of President Xi Jinping has vowed never to visit Hong Kong again following her immigration “ordeal”.

Conchita Carpio-Morales, 78, said on Thursday she suspected her three-hour detention at Hong Kong airport was because she and former Philippine foreign affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario had previously filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Xi for alleged crimes against humanity.

Asked whether she would ever visit the city again, she told the Post: “Never! I will never contribute a single Hong Kong dollar to the economy of Hong Kong.”

Morales, the Southeast Asian country’s ex-ombudsman, arrived at the airport on Tuesday with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren for a holiday.

Upon arrival, she said immigration officers took her to a detention room where she was interrogated about the purpose of her visit.

The officers later asked Morales to sign papers in Tagalog but she wanted an English version. She refused to sign them because the papers were missing a lot of detail. The papers carried the word “detention”.

Immigration officers later told her there had been a mistake and she could proceed to enter Hong Kong – three hours after she landed in the city.

Eventually, she decided to just return home later that day.

Morales said she has never previously had any problems entering foreign soil, including Hong Kong and mainland China. Tuesday was the first time she was subjected to such an “ordeal”, she said. Her last visit to Hong Kong was about two years ago.

“[The immigration officers] have to tell the persons denied entry why they were denied. They can’t just come up with a general reason. They have to be specific,” Morales said.

The Immigration Department has not given her a full explanation, except to cite unspecified “immigration reasons” before saying it was a “mistake”.

“Hong Kong is supposed to have a high level of autonomy [from Chinese rule]. But this incident is an indication that the high level of autonomy is not high at all,” Morales said.

She said she would never stop speaking up against China’s crimes in the South China Sea, stressing she was “not criticising for the purpose of criticising”.

In March, she complained to the International Criminal Court against China’s “atrocious” activities in the South China Sea.

That was about three years after an international tribunal dealt a blow to Beijing’s assertiveness in the area, ruling in favour of the Philippines, which brought the case to The Hague.

The Philippines, under President Rodrigo Duterte, has mended ties with China.

But recently Filipinos had complained against the “intrusion” of Chinese workers, particularly those working illegally in the online gaming industry that has flourished recently.

On this, Morales said: “This is a problem. If indeed the influx of Chinese citizens in the country was based on illegal grounds, then the government should check the problems. The government cannot just be paying lip service.”

The Philippine government was in the process of finalising new rules to crack down on illegal foreign workers.

About 12,000 foreigners were hired to work in the online gaming industry in the Philippines, the authorities said earlier this week.

Asked about Morales’ case earlier, the Hong Kong Immigration Department declined to comment on “individual cases”.

A spokesman would only say that, according to the city’s laws, “persons who do not have the right of abode or the right to land in Hong Kong are subject to immigration examination upon their arrival”.