Press statement of Senator Chiz Escudero

ON CHIP TSAO'S APOLOGY

The government should make a negative example of Tsip Chao by pursuing the filing of a damage suit despite his purported apology. Let us also be reminded by his racist diatribe of the graver problems confronting our heroines in Hong Kong.

1) There are 127 Filipinos, 94 of them women, who are languishing in Hong Kong jails as of the last report of the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Senate.

2) Our consulate in HK needs more personnel to attend to the welfare and distress calls of 157,000 Filipinos there.

3) The current assistance fund for Filipinos there is sorely insufficient to provide aid and succor to Filipinos.

It is not enough for the government to ride on the crest of the tempest generated by one unfounded insult. Indignities more painful than what was caused by the wholesale slander of our people need to be addressed as well.

ON RISING OIL PRICES

We should start exploring alternative and innovative ways of providing cheaper fuel through research and development. I urge the oil companies to invest on this as a public service to their customers and make it an essential part of their corporate social responsibility agenda.