A legislator from Mindanao opposed the country’s proposed participation in the planned ASEAN unified visa system, citing risks to national security.
Reelected Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to direct Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco to withdraw her agency’s support for the plan.
According to Rodriguez, the country’s involvement in the system, if it materializes, “will pose greater risk to our national security and interest, our people and our society than the present set-up.”
“This will allow Chinese tourists who are actually spies to get ASEAN visas in Chinese client states like Cambodia and Laos, or even the liberal visa grant by Thailand to Chinese citizens, to come to the Philippines, and they will automatically be admitted under the ASEAN visa scheme. This will be more dangerous to our national security than our present visa issuance process,” Rodriguez said.
The lawmaker said Chinese “Trojan horses” as it is can enter the country as tourists, students, and businessmen.
“Many of them are actually spies of Beijing, several of whom have been caught red-handed by the authorities near military installations and sensitive government offices, including the Commission on Elections,” Rodriguez said.
“Others are scammers, illegal gambling operators, illegal POGO operators, human traffickers, drug smugglers, and criminally-minded nationals of China. They are a plague in our society. We cannot have more of them here through a system that facilitates their easy entry in our country,” he added.
Rodriguez likewise urged Frasco along with other tourism officials and industry stakeholders to think of national security in endorsing the country’s participation in such tourism-related schemes like the ASEAN unified visa system.
“We are all for boosting our tourism sector and our economy by having more tourist arrivals, but, given our experience and our raging dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea, we don’t want to just accept Chinese tourists, but they should undergo rigorous evaluation by our Embassy and consulates in China,” Rodriguez said.
Frasco endorsed the ASEAN unified visa plan at a forum in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 15. She said she was “very hopeful” the proposal would be tackled when the Philippines hosts the ASEAN Summit next year.