MANILA, Philippines – The headline of a Thai newspaper calling the Philippines the “COVID-19 country” motivated through a fierce tourist festival between the two Southeast Asian neighbors, Malacaang said on Wednesday.
“We are Thailand’s fierce competition in terms of tourism. I’m sure your who we are the country of COVID is also motivated by the fact that they have a hard time inviting others to come back and make a stopover in Thailand,” Roque said in an interview with CNN’s Philippines source.
By 2019, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) may have attracted a total of 133.1 million tourists. Thailand has ruled the region with more than 39 million foreign tourist arrivals, while the Philippines ranks fifth with 8 million arrivals.
The Philippines Embassy in Bangkok has in the past expressed its discontent with Thai Rath, who called the Philippines a “COVID-19 country” in an article reporting the arrival of 165 Filipino teachers assigned to personal schools.
The article came after the Philippines surpassed Southeast Asia in terms of the total amount of COVID-19, which is now 139,538.
READ: PH now has maximum instances of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia
But the palace official insisted that the Philippines is doing well with its limited resources, and stressed that the country now has the highest testing capacity in the entire region.
“Now we have the highest tests in Southeast Asia and I’m not sure we’re the highest in Asia right now, we’ve passed the South Korea and Japan tests,” he said.
“Wala po kasing kalayaan ng malayang pamamahayag and pananalita dyan as Thailand”. Pag pinulaan mo yung hari, pupuwede kang makulong. His tingin ko in, dahil marami silang hindi pupuwedeng pulaan in Thailand, pinulaan na lang nila tayo,” Harry Roque said in a briefing.
(There is no freedom of press and expression in Thailand. If he criticizes his king, he threatens to be imprisoned. In my opinion, as they criticize Thailand, they simply chose to criticize us.)
“Intindihin na lang po natin’yan. Share this with the Pilipins, with all the countries of the world. Make a contribution to your marketing ideas,” he added.
(Let’s perceive them. Here in the Philippines, we know the importance of freedom of expression. Let’s just settle for this as a contribution to the brain-free market.)
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