00:00What do you have to say to Mayor Alice Guo, and are you going to push for an investigation
00:05on her identity or her being a Filipino?
00:15Well, thank you, Red. We don't have a position on that yet.
00:18But we have a clear position that we should respect our citizens,
00:26whether they are Filipino or Chinese, or whatever nationality they are,
00:36we should respect them.
00:37I don't think the problem here is with the identity,
00:42or the questioning of the identity of Mayor Arlene.
00:47That's Arlene. Arlene Guo, right?
00:50Arlene.
00:51Oh, Alice. I thought it was Arlene.
00:53Alice Guo, because she looks like Arlene.
00:56So, it's up for the OSG, right?
01:03That's the job of the OSG, right?
01:05The COMELEC is already done with their responsibilities.
01:09So, with respect to what the Senate is doing,
01:17what is the implication of this?
01:20We should look at the implications of Mayor's decisions
01:26as regards to POGO and other crimes against her country.
01:33So, we leave it up to the OSG to look at her nationality
01:39and to prove that she's not Filipino,
01:44and then run.
01:45It's up to them to decide what to do.
01:48We just want to emphasize that we are not against Chinese, right?
01:54Our brothers, the Chinese, the Filipinos,
01:59the Chinese,
02:00we know that there's a long history of helping the Filipinos and China.
02:06Let's just chase the criminals, the thieves,
02:10who are not just Chinese,
02:16but other foreigners who are violating our laws,
02:22like what's happening in China, in the West Philippine Sea.
02:29That's the truth.
02:31So, what's happening is that our fellow countrymen
02:36continue to have xenophobia,
02:41the anti-Chinese people.
02:44So, we are not like that.
02:48Just to add,
02:50in two points,
02:52her qualifications, citizenship,
02:55and of course, her performance as mayor.
02:59In terms of performance,
03:00we need to look at the effects of POGO,
03:08and prove that under her term,
03:12POGO's operations have expanded,
03:16and given the bad implications to the community,
03:22and the type of jobs that are provided there,
03:27she should be responsible to the people of Bambang.
03:31Secondly, in terms of citizenship,
03:34this is where Komelek's power comes in.
03:38Assuming that the mayor really had a problem there,
03:45why did this affect Komelek?
03:47Because what Komelek always says,
03:50she needs to wait for a petition
03:53to question the qualifications of any candidate.
03:57On its own, if she already has a sense
03:59that she complies with the qualifications,
04:02she should have already taken action.
04:04It's like,
04:06what she's doing is just a chase.
04:09She ran, she was elected, and so on.
04:12But supposedly,
04:13if there are these types of questions
04:15related to her qualifications,
04:17that she really raised,
04:20before she ran,
04:22and Komelek also has a role in that.
04:24We are a bit confident in our numbers,
04:26in the divorce bill.
04:28But we only have one regular session left
04:33before our current Congress ends.
04:38Realistically, are you confident that
04:41at least this will pass before our session ends by 2025?
04:46Because we know that in the Senate,
04:49the divorce bill is only at the committee level.
04:54Are you confident or hopeful that this will pass
04:58at least during this Congress?
05:01Hopefully, yes.
05:02Because we really want this Congress to pass.
05:05And if we will be able to pass this next week,
05:10there's still one more year.
05:12The Senate is almost a year old.
05:15So, they're on the ball.
05:17We need to know if they will comply
05:20with the wishes of our citizens.
05:24But in the end,
05:25I want to say in the end,
05:26this is not the end-all be-all of everything.
05:29We know that divorce is just a legal remedy.
05:32We have the annulment.
05:34It's still there.
05:35There's the annulment, nullity of marriage,
05:37legal separation.
05:41So, there are ways that our citizens are choosing.
05:46What we just said is that this is an additional legal remedy.
05:50And this is also the wish of most of our people.
05:54The 2015 survey says that 53% of our citizens
06:00are in favor of divorce.
06:02So, we are banking on that.
06:06Our citizens are hoping that they will like
06:11these amendments or laws that will help them.
06:16In the transcript of a conversation
06:19with a general or an admiral in the West Com,
06:24he said that there are people who are pushing
06:27to expel the diplomats of China
06:32for alleged wiretapping.
06:35What is the comment of the citizens
06:37regarding the calls to expel the diplomats of China
06:44against possible wiretapping?
06:46That's all. Thank you.
06:48The issue is about the gentlemen's agreement
06:52or the secret agreement of the government of the Philippines
06:56and the government of China.
06:58The conversation has already developed
07:01up to the point that China is doing this.
07:05So, it's better to investigate once and for all
07:09the gentlemen's agreement.
07:12And we have taken note of
07:16that when the session started this May,
07:20the House leadership mentioned that
07:23the gentlemen's agreement will be investigated.
07:27But we have one week left,
07:29and so far we haven't sensed
07:33that such a hearing will be called
07:37in the Antas Committee.
07:39So, it's better to continue this
07:43as soon as possible
07:45so that the details of the gentlemen's agreement
07:49can be settled.
07:51Because it will be discussed
07:55when it really started,
07:57what was the duration,
07:59did it spill into the Marcos Jr. administration.
08:02Those things can be answered
08:04when the members of the House sit down.
08:09For more UN videos visit www.un.org
Comments