Taiwan is part of China– or at least that’s what Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque publicly asserted today.

Roque said in an interview with news show ANC News that the deportation of an anti-Duterte Filipina worker based in the self-governing republic depends on the decision of Taiwan and China.

“We leave the Filipino caregiver to the jurisdiction of Taiwanese authorities because deportation is really a decision to be made by Taiwanese authorities, which forms part of China,” Roque said.

“We leave that wholly to the decision of Taiwan and China. Taiwan is part of China,” the spokesman reiterated.

Read: ‘Freedom of Speech’: Taiwan rejects Labor Department’s request to deport Filipina caregiver critical of Duterte

Roque added that Malacañang Palace accepts Taiwan’s decision not to deport the Filipina worker.

“We respect that decision, and of course, in the same way, we will enforce our law in the same way, while they [citizens] are under our jurisdiction,” the spokesman said.

Over the weekend, Labor Department Attaché Fidel Macauyag called for the deportation of caregiver Elanel Ordidor because she allegedly committed cyber libel when she uploaded a Facebook video lambasting the Philippine government over its harsh lockdown measures. People will die of hunger due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis, she said.

The Taiwanese government, meanwhile, has rejected Macauyag’s calls for deportation, citing Ordidor’s right to freedom of speech, a right, they said, that “should be respected by governments of all countries.”

Angelito Banayo, Chairman of The Manila Economic and Cultural Office, the representative office of the Philipines in Taiwan told ANC News yesterday that Macauyag acted unilaterally. “Apparently, it was either the labor attaché on his own, unilaterally took action, or received directions from the home office,” Banayo said. “I’d like to assure the people, you know I’ve been the subject of six libel cases in the past… I would be the last person to countenance any curtailment of freedom of expression,” Banayo added.

This isn’t the first time that the sovereign state of Taiwan has been lumped under China’s jurisdiction. Earlier in February, Taiwan had complained of being “wrongly included” in the government’s coronavirus-related travel ban, because the Philippines deemed it as part of China, although it said that it was never really part of the People’s Republic. Taiwan has had an independent government since the 1950s, although China sees it as a breakaway province, which they have long sought to reclaim.

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