MANILA, Philippines — Instead of barring Cabinet officials from travelling to the United States, the government should ban the entry to the Philippines of Chinese from virus-infected areas, opposition Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said on Thursday.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday ordered his Cabinet officials to refrain from flying to the United States, a week after he threatened to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US after Washington cancelled the visa of Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

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“I will not allow any Cabinet member to go there at this time. No Cabinet member should be allowed to go to the United States,” Duterte said.

Sought for comment, Pangilinan said the President should have instead ordered the banning of Chinese nationals from areas infected by the 2019 novel coronavirus.

“Sa halip na barring Cabinet officials from going to the US, dapat barring Chinese nationals from coronavirus cities from entering the Phil ang inaasikaso ng Malacanang,” he said in a text message.

(Instead of barring Cabinet officials from going to the US, Malacanang should focus on barring Chinese nationals from coronavirus cities from entering the Philippines.)

The novel coronavirus, which has reportedly killed 170 people and infected over 7,000 others, was first detected in Wuhan, China and has spread to other parts of China and the world.

Despite the coronavirus scare, Duterte said the government would not yet ban the entry of Chinese nationals to the Philippines.

“Bakit mukhang mas matimbang sa inyo ang interes ng China kaysa sa kapakanan at kaligtasan ng mamamayang Pilipino?” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, wrote on Facebook Wednesday.

(Why is China’s interest seems to be more important to you than the welfare and safety of Filipino people?)

“Unahin dapat ang kaligtasan ng taumbayan hindi ang interes ng iilan sa pagkansela ng isang visa,” he further said in the text message.

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(Let’s prioritize the welfare of the public, and not the interest of a few as an offshoot of one cancelled visa.)

On January 22, Dela Rosa confirmed that his US visa had been revoked and Washington did not tell him why.

As then police chief, Dela Rosa oversaw Duterte’s war on drugs that resulted in the deaths of thousands drug suspects.

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