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Coronavirus: Philippines’ plan to sell Japanese war reparations properties is ‘crooked’ Locsin says, contradicting Duterte
- Foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr denounces move to sell properties Japan gave Manila after WWII, calling them ‘the blood of our people’
- President Duterte had suggested the sales were needed to stop the national health insurer from going bankrupt as it struggled to pay Covid-related claims
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The Philippine foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr has denounced as “crooked” his own government’s plan to sell its properties in Japan to fund the fight against the coronavirus.
Government officials, apparently backed by President Rodrigo Duterte, had floated a plan to sell five state-owned properties, four of which were given to the Philippines by Japan as part of reparations for the Second World War, during which an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Filipinos died; while a fifth property was bought during the war.
But Locsin left no doubt as to his opposition to this when he addressed, via Zoom, a senate foreign relations committee hearing on February 4.
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“No, I will not sell the blood of our people,” Locsin said. “[The buildings were] reparations and I will not sell them.”
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The five properties include a 3,179 square metre building that has been partly developed and now houses the chancery of the Philippine embassy. It is on Roppongi Street in Tokyo’s Minato ward, southwest of the Imperial Palace. Minato is home to 84 other embassies and many of Japan’s top corporations.
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