Balita

Humingi ng paumanhin ang Department of National Defense para sa paggamit ng logo ng Taiwan sa isang opisyal na seremonya kasama ang China noong nakaraang linggo. “The department committed a grievous but purely unintentional mistake of using a different logo on a banner to represent the Ministry of Defense of the People’s Republic of China,” sabi ni DND spokesman Arsenio Andolong. Napag-alaman na ang logo na ginamit sa hand over ng mga donasyong baril at bala ng China noong Okt. 5 ay logo ng Ministry of National Defense ng Taiwan. Ang Taiwan ay isang estadong nagkaroon ng gobyernong hiwalay sa China matapos ang Chinese civil war noong 1949. Itinuturing pa rin ito ng China bilang probinsya sa ilalim ng “one China policy,” na sinasang-ayunan ng Pilipinas. Ayon sa isang source sa DND,  ang tarpaulin banner ay dinesenyo ng isang “ordinaryo” na miyembro ng staff ng department branch na humawak sa publicity ng hand over ceremony. “That staff member might just have used the Internet to look for a logo and got confused with the official names – People’s Republic of China for China and Republic of China for Taiwan,” anang source. Ayon sa source, pinuna ng Chinese Embassy ang DND pagkatapos na ng seremonya, dahil walang sinuman mula sa department, Armed Forces, o maging sa embassy ang nakapansin sa logo. Matatandaan na kabilang sa mga dumalo sa event sina Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Año, at Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua. “It appears that a Chinese media practioner noticed and informed one of the local media after the event,” anang source. Ayon kay Andolong, nagpadala na ang DND ng “official apology” sa China, sa pamamagitan ni Ambassador Zhao Jianhua. “It is our sincere hope that this very unfortunate incident will not affect the cooperative and friendly relations between our two countries which has grown warmer over the past year,” aniya. “We are fully cognizant and grateful for the support that the government of the People’s Republic of China has been providing us and we reiterate that the DND and the AFP strictly adhere to the ‘one China policy’ as espoused by the Philippine government,” sabi pa ni Andolong.