The Philippines government has explained why a representative did not attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo on Friday. From AP:
President Benigno Aquino III said the Philippines did not send a representative to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring a jailed Chinese dissident because of his efforts to spare Filipinos on death row in China.
Aquino said in an interview published in the Philippine Sunday Inquirer that his envoy’s absence at the ceremony in Norway on Friday did not mean his government is not championing democracy and human rights.
[…] Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao has said his government did not pressure or influence the Philippines.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo also said that Manila’s move should not be interpreted as “taking sides with China.”
See also “Nobel boycott sets bad precedent: analysts” from the Philippines’ ABS-CBN News.
