Filipino Visas in Limbo in Taiwan after Row between Filipino and Taiwanese Leadership
TAIWAN and FILIPINO VISA ROW after Questionable Deportation of Taiwanese to Mainland China
By Kevin Stoda, working in Taiwan
As most readers of my blogs have noted, my wife is Filipina, and my attempts to bring her to Taiwan to live where I work has continued to be a problem this winter 2011. The most recent stress has been caused by a major international incident between Taiwan and the Philippine’s, which occurred this past January, when the Philippine’s government deported 14 Taiwanese nationals (not to Taiwan but) to Mainland China (Communist China) as part of a regional crackdown on drug smugglers.
The Philippine government and its leading administrators had failed to get Taiwanese approval of the deportation of 14 of its nationals. At first the Philippines leadership was caught off guard by the ire it had created in Taiwan, i.e. by failing to get appropriate approval to extradite Taiwanese nationals to a third country. Taiwan immediately retaliated by retightening visa restrictions on future Filipinos attempts to obtain access to the local labor market. Moreover, a special immigrant visa arrangement involving the recognition of Filipinos holding U.S.A green-cards would no longer be in affect. (This latter item quite probably will lengthy the Taiwanese bureaucracy on my wife’s obtaining her visas to Taiwan in 2011.)
THE EXTRADITION DEBACLE
Apparently, pressure to extradite was strong from Chinese authorities, but the Filipino government should not have extradited nationals to a 3rd country, like the Peoples Republic of China, without trying to clear everything with the proper Taiwanese authorities. This kowtowing to Mainland China makes the Filipino government look weak at home--and abroad, it appears that the Filipino government is totally inept in terms of maintaining good trade and working relationships with its closest neighbor in the region, namely Taiwan.
By sending the 14 Taiwanese smugglers to the People’s Republic of China without obtaining and nod from Taiwan (the Republic of China) was defacto treatment of Taiwan as an internationally recognized territory belonging to Greater China. In a way, more than one Filipino commentator has since noted, this “unthought-through” extradition would be like either the country of Taiwan or the country of China one-sidedly sending a group of 14 Filipino nationals to Spain— simply because the Philippines had once been a colony of Spain.
Finally, [t]he Philippine Congress yesterday began investigating a diplomatic row with Taiwan”.
According to the TAIPEI TIMES, “The probe was initiated by committee chairman Antonio Diaz, during a House plenary session two days earlier. The proposal was immediately passed. According to House documents obtained by Central News Agency, Diaz slammed the Philippine Bureau of Immigration in a speech at the session for deporting the Taiwanese suspects to China in spite of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the country’s Court of Appeals on Jan. 31 that ordered the National Bureau of Investigation, the immigration bureau and the Department of Justice to bring the detainees to a Feb. 2 hearing.”
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/02/17/2003496078
INCIDENT IS PARTIALLY FAULT OF TAIWANESE-CHINESE
Meanwhile, a few remaining Filipino authorities are still trying to claim that the whole debacle is the result of the fact that Taiwan and China are, in fact, simply not working out their differences on judicial activities in a manner that reflects the 2009 agreement between the two states to streamline judicial activities between the 2 nations.
For example, “Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said the row over the deported Taiwanese was an issue between Beijing and Taipei and did not involve Manila.
According to Lima, “Taiwan and Beijing are supposed to have this 2009 cross-straits [sic] agreement on crime fighting and mutual judicial assistance where they can really settle matters like this.”
In turn, some Taiwanese watchers admit that weak Taiwanese presidential leadership has been show of late in terms of the country’s international standing, i.e. by not speaking up sooner and loudly enough on this coming extradition, the Taiwanese government had failed to make its case clear regionally that, even in wake of the 2009 Cross-Straits Agreement with China, Taiwan still needed to be contacted for its approval when international issues, such as this one, involved third nation states.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN TAIWAN
According to the TAIPEI TIMES, “In Taipei, the Ministry of Justice [has] said that while it was unlikely Beijing would agree to immediately return the 14 Taiwanese suspects, it had asked Chinese authorities to do so, along with the legal evidence, after Chinese prosecutors have completed their investigation. . . . The ministry has requested that the 14 Taiwanese be tried in Taiwan using legal evidence provided by China, he said, adding that it had promised Beijing that prosecutors would seek heavy sentences.”
As might be suspected, Communist China has not responded to the Ministry of Justice’s request. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese envoy has not returned to Manila over the past two weeks. Moreover, the following two actions remain in effect for Filipinos wishing to come to Taiwan: (1) tightened screening of applications by Philippine citizens seeking to work in Taiwan and (2) the canceled visa-waiver privileges for some Philippine citizens.
By Kevin Stoda, working in Taiwan
As most readers of my blogs have noted, my wife is Filipina, and my attempts to bring her to Taiwan to live where I work has continued to be a problem this winter 2011. The most recent stress has been caused by a major international incident between Taiwan and the Philippine’s, which occurred this past January, when the Philippine’s government deported 14 Taiwanese nationals (not to Taiwan but) to Mainland China (Communist China) as part of a regional crackdown on drug smugglers.
The Philippine government and its leading administrators had failed to get Taiwanese approval of the deportation of 14 of its nationals. At first the Philippines leadership was caught off guard by the ire it had created in Taiwan, i.e. by failing to get appropriate approval to extradite Taiwanese nationals to a third country. Taiwan immediately retaliated by retightening visa restrictions on future Filipinos attempts to obtain access to the local labor market. Moreover, a special immigrant visa arrangement involving the recognition of Filipinos holding U.S.A green-cards would no longer be in affect. (This latter item quite probably will lengthy the Taiwanese bureaucracy on my wife’s obtaining her visas to Taiwan in 2011.)
THE EXTRADITION DEBACLE
Apparently, pressure to extradite was strong from Chinese authorities, but the Filipino government should not have extradited nationals to a 3rd country, like the Peoples Republic of China, without trying to clear everything with the proper Taiwanese authorities. This kowtowing to Mainland China makes the Filipino government look weak at home--and abroad, it appears that the Filipino government is totally inept in terms of maintaining good trade and working relationships with its closest neighbor in the region, namely Taiwan.
By sending the 14 Taiwanese smugglers to the People’s Republic of China without obtaining and nod from Taiwan (the Republic of China) was defacto treatment of Taiwan as an internationally recognized territory belonging to Greater China. In a way, more than one Filipino commentator has since noted, this “unthought-through” extradition would be like either the country of Taiwan or the country of China one-sidedly sending a group of 14 Filipino nationals to Spain— simply because the Philippines had once been a colony of Spain.
Finally, [t]he Philippine Congress yesterday began investigating a diplomatic row with Taiwan”.
According to the TAIPEI TIMES, “The probe was initiated by committee chairman Antonio Diaz, during a House plenary session two days earlier. The proposal was immediately passed. According to House documents obtained by Central News Agency, Diaz slammed the Philippine Bureau of Immigration in a speech at the session for deporting the Taiwanese suspects to China in spite of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the country’s Court of Appeals on Jan. 31 that ordered the National Bureau of Investigation, the immigration bureau and the Department of Justice to bring the detainees to a Feb. 2 hearing.”
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/02/17/2003496078
INCIDENT IS PARTIALLY FAULT OF TAIWANESE-CHINESE
Meanwhile, a few remaining Filipino authorities are still trying to claim that the whole debacle is the result of the fact that Taiwan and China are, in fact, simply not working out their differences on judicial activities in a manner that reflects the 2009 agreement between the two states to streamline judicial activities between the 2 nations.
For example, “Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said the row over the deported Taiwanese was an issue between Beijing and Taipei and did not involve Manila.
According to Lima, “Taiwan and Beijing are supposed to have this 2009 cross-straits [sic] agreement on crime fighting and mutual judicial assistance where they can really settle matters like this.”
In turn, some Taiwanese watchers admit that weak Taiwanese presidential leadership has been show of late in terms of the country’s international standing, i.e. by not speaking up sooner and loudly enough on this coming extradition, the Taiwanese government had failed to make its case clear regionally that, even in wake of the 2009 Cross-Straits Agreement with China, Taiwan still needed to be contacted for its approval when international issues, such as this one, involved third nation states.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN TAIWAN
According to the TAIPEI TIMES, “In Taipei, the Ministry of Justice [has] said that while it was unlikely Beijing would agree to immediately return the 14 Taiwanese suspects, it had asked Chinese authorities to do so, along with the legal evidence, after Chinese prosecutors have completed their investigation. . . . The ministry has requested that the 14 Taiwanese be tried in Taiwan using legal evidence provided by China, he said, adding that it had promised Beijing that prosecutors would seek heavy sentences.”
As might be suspected, Communist China has not responded to the Ministry of Justice’s request. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese envoy has not returned to Manila over the past two weeks. Moreover, the following two actions remain in effect for Filipinos wishing to come to Taiwan: (1) tightened screening of applications by Philippine citizens seeking to work in Taiwan and (2) the canceled visa-waiver privileges for some Philippine citizens.
Labels: TAIWAN and FILIPINO VISA ROW after Questionable Deportation of Taiwanese to Mainland China
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 8:35 AM
3 Comments:
Nice summation of this new story! It's otherwise only available in bits and pieces. My wife is filipina. Her contract here in Taiwan expires in two months, and then the bureaucratic fun of her trying to come back begins. We have two choices:
1. Come work at my company, so we can then cohabitate.
2. Come here on a JFRV.
Either way, I bet we're looking at months of waiting, or worse, unless Manila is willing to admit some kind of wrongdoing.
I enjoy my work in Taiwan but this visa stuff is hurting my family and our relationship.
Back in the USA things aren't looking too hot either for immigrants. Here is news from the American Prospect.
NATIVISM: Immigration was also a topic of debate at CPAC this year. "Anybody that brings up amnesty in this Congress, we need to just take the scarlet 'A' for amnesty and pin it on them," King told the audience. An entire panel was dedicated to promoting efforts aimed at eliminating the guarantee that all persons born in the U.S. are automatically citizens. At another panel, entitled, "Will Immigration Kill the GOP?," former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) proclaimed, "no more of this multiculturalism garbage," adding that "the cult of multiculturalism has captured the world" and is "the dagger in the heart" of civilization. Right Wing Watch concluded, "if there is one me ssage to take away from CPAC's panel on immigration, it's that White America is in serious jeopardy and may soon succumb to immigration, multiculturalism, and socialism." However, as the GOP continues to push increasingly harsher enforcement-only policies, other members of Republican Party have pleaded with their colleagues to soften their stance. President Bush expressed concerns that the nation "is going through a period of nativism." "The decibels have to be lower," Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) recently stated at the 2011 Inaugural Conference of the Hispanic Leadership Network -- an event that was "billed" as a forum for the 2012 Republican presidential field to speak directly to Latino voters. "It doesn't matter how good our policy positions are, if we are perceived as being anti-immigrant, we cannot be the majority party," affirmed Diaz-Balart. Jeb Bush was the first Republican to blast the Arizona immigration law. Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie , Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Colin Powell, and former Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) have all warned their party about the dangers associated with the party's anti-immigrant tilt. Ken Starr, Michael Gerson, and Alberto Gonzalez have come out against the GOP effort to change the 14th amendment's citizenship clause. Yet prominent Latino conservative Alfonso Aguilar believes the party should be more proactive. "The question now is can we propose, can Republicans practically propose immigration solutions that go beyond enforcement only? And if we do, Hispanics will respond very favorably," stated Aguilar.
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