Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. stressed it is important to bring justice to the Chinese worker who was allegedly killed in Metro Manila amid speculations that the culprit is also a Chinese national.
Based on previous reports, security footage showed a 27-year-old Chinese man, identified as Yang Kang, peering out a window of an establishment in Las Piñas, climbing out of it and then falling to his death. Kang was also found handcuffed.
Locsin responded to a tweet by @zaldytor, who alleged that a Chinese triad, an organized crime syndicate, must be involved in this.
It makes no difference who killer(s) are, killing happened here. Our obligation to bring them to justice pronto. Unless opposition wants to thank Chinese triads. Triads as generous as drug cartels—a hint to administration critics. Deep pockets to line deep convictions. https://t.co/eBJ9wj9Zbm
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) August 13, 2019
To this, the top diplomat said: “It makes no difference who killer(s) are, killing happened here. Our obligation to bring them to justice pronto.”
“Unless opposition wants to thank Chinese triads. Triads as generous as drug cartels—a hint to administration critics. Deep pockets to line deep convictions.”
He later responded to the same user, who shared a blurry video clip from DZRH News of the event. In here, it showed a supposed Chinese national who was putting handcuffs on another person.
See recent video footage that surfaced in the news. It appears to be their national was involved?https://t.co/ZVcGUeSUML
— Zaldy Tor (@zaldytor) August 13, 2019
Locsin’s retweet explained: “When a foreign national is killed on our soil, we are obliged to allow the foreign national’s state to send its own investigators to solve the crime we seem unable to. That is international practice.”
Moreover, he also said that in general, local authorities should not fail in finding the perpetrator of a crime regardless if is a Chinese national or not.
“Failure to bring the killer to justice—like failure to off the cops who kidnapped a Korean, strangled and cremated him, flushed his ashes in a PNP toilet then demanded ransom from unwitting widow is sign of failed state,” Locsin said as another response.
IT makes no difference if a Chinese national is the killer. FAILURE TO BRING THE KILLER TO JUSTICE—like failure to off the cops who kidnapped a Korean, strangled & cremated him, flushed his ashes in a PNP toilet then demanded ransom from unwitting widow is sign of failed state. https://t.co/fRmf3xOcRp
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) August 13, 2019
The Chinese embassy in Manila previously urged the Philippine government to investigate the matter, and noted that it will be “closely” monitoring the results.
Malacañang then ordered the Philippine National Police to conduct an investigation.
“We ask the Philippine National Police, which is seriously looking into the matter, including tracking down the supervisor of the victim who allegedly made the former a prisoner, to treat the case with dispatch,” Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Alleged slavery of Chinese workers
The incident in Las Piñas happened after the Chinese embassy in Manila reported abuses being committed against Chinese workers in the online gambling industry.
The industry, known as the Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs, had been luring Chinese nationals to the country, even to the point of skirting local labor regulations to employ them since the system was introduced in 2016.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue recently discovered an omission of P32 billion in unpaid income taxes from the gambling firms.
The Chinese embassy claimed that their citizens in the Philippines are being kidnapped, tortured and physically abused by local employers, who also confiscated their passports.
Panelo expressed concern on these reports and encouraged foreign nationals to immediately report any illegal acts of their employers to proper authorities.
“No one is exempted from the strict enforcement of our laws of the land,” he said.
