Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) There is no need for Taiwan to argue with the Philippines to obtain an apology for Manila's deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, Taiwan's foreign minister said Wednesday.
"I can't remember the last time in my diplomatic career that I've seen one country officially 'apologize' to another... and apology takes many forms," Foreign Minister Timothy C.T. Yang told reporters.
Taiwan, which had repeatedly demanded a formal apology from the Philippine government since Manila's deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China Feb. 2, appeared to have softened its stance after a visit to Taipei Monday by Philippine presidential envoy Manuel Roxas.
A "fact sheet" agreed on by Roxas and Taiwanese officials after their 12-hour marathon meeting Monday night stated that any Philippine officials who are found to have mishandled the case would be held accountable and possibly reprimanded.
For the Taiwan side, this "would signify a kind of apology, " the statement read.
Citing the example of the United States-China dispute in 2001, which resulted from a mid-air collision of two of their aircraft, Yang said the U.S. only told China that it was "sorry" but it never issued a formal apology.
In the Taiwan-Philippines case, the dispute sprang from an issue of judicial jurisdiction, not sovereignty, he said.
"The people of Taiwan should be rational in their reaction to the unfortunate incident," he advised.
"Taiwan and the Philippines have a wide range of ties and exchanges and the relations are too important to be sacrificed to a disagreement over one word," he added.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has been taking heat in Taiwan's legislature, as lawmakers across party lines have criticized the ministry as being soft in its negotiations with the Philippines.
John Chiang, a ruling Kuomintang (KMT) legislator and former foreign minister, panned the MOFA for arranging a meeting between Roxas and President Ma Ying-jeou although the envoy had already said that an apology was "not in his mandate."
The MOFA had said that whether Roxas would be allowed to meet with Ma would be contingent on the message he was bringing to Taiwan.
The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus criticized President Ma's foreign policy and urged the Taiwan government to freeze imports of Filipino workers.
But KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung said that both sides should focus on developing bilateral relations in areas such as the mutual legal assistance agreement and Economic Partnership Agreement mentioned in the consensus.
The Philippine side on Wednesday maintained that the administration of President Benigno Aquino III had made the right decision to deport the 14 Taiwanese suspects to China.
Aquino admitted that Roxas' mission to Taiwan "was not very successful" but expressed optimism that the rift could be resolved "without the Philippine government having to apologize," according to the Philippine media.
"They have their political realities in Taiwan and we understand where they are coming from and we hope they understand also where we are coming from," the president was also quoted as saying. (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc