Unconfirmed reports from the police have said that the United States also voided the US visas of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and other military and police officials in the Philippines, according to Senator Imee Marcos.
Meanwhile, during Thursday’s “Kapihan sa Senado,” Marcos said she knows that Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa would no longer go to the US.
Marcos said she heard that other officials, including Lorenzana, were blacklisted.
However, Marcos noted that unlike Dela Rosa, the cancellation of Lorenzana’s visa has not been confirmed yet.
Dela Rosa, who spearheaded the government’s bloody drug war when he was police chief, confirmed that the US government had cancelled his visa.
“Tsismis lang, balita ko. Tsismosa ako e,” said Marcos who considered as “surprising” the alleged report on Lorenzana since he was the military attache for more than 15 years in Washington.
Marcos said this would be ironic if the rumor on the revocation of Lorenzana’s passport is true and he has been barred from entering US since he is an “Amboy” , a colloquial term for “American boy”.
“ It’s funny since it’s ironic because we there were times we kidded him as even Amboy because he stayed for a long time in America, and then he has no visa,” said Marcos.
Marcos said it was likely the US might have also revoked the visa of other police and military officers since they were being blamed for all the alleged human rights violations happening in the Philipines.
Meanwhile, Marcos said the only way to find out why Philippine officials were blacklisted by the U.S was for President Rodrigo Duterte to attend the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Las Vegas this March.
U.S. President Donald Trump has invited ASEAN leaders to attend the summit but Duterte has yet to accept the invitation.
“I have been saying that if the President will attend the ASEAN summit in March, we will see the real situation and find out why Philippine officials are being blacklisted by the Americans,” she said.
But she said it would still be up to Duterte if he would raise the issue should he decide to join the summit.
“ I think that it’s very, very important that we should respect the sovereign rights of every country,” Marcos stressed./STACY ANG
