Philippine President Benigno Aquino yesterday used a televised interview to rebuke the Hong Kong government over a letter from Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, which he described as 'insulting'.
Aquino did not name the sender. However, Tsang's office said the chief executive had written to Aquino on August 26.
The president said he had declined to respond to the letter, and had instead conveyed his displeasure to Chinese government officials.
Relations between Hong Kong and Manila are strained over the handling of the Manila tour bus hijacking on August 23, in which eight Hongkongers were killed, and after Aquino failed to return a phone call from Tsang on the night of the tragedy.
The comments came as Philippine investigators for the first time admitted police might have shot some of the tourist hostages in the bungled operation. Manila police had said earlier that all eight were killed by the hijacker, sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza.
Aquino said the letter took issue with his government's handling of the hostage crisis. 'We were being told, in very minute detail, what we were supposed to do,' he said in the TV interview with Philippine media.
'I decided not to respond to the official letter from the Hong Kong government, that in my view was insulting. [Instead] I conveyed through the People's Republic of China government that maybe sending that letter to me was not right. I did not like its tone.'
