Philippines bans 2 U.S. senators, mulls new visa rules for Americans

MANILA, Dec 27 (Reuters) - The Philippines has banned two
U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry
restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce
sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the
president's spokesman said on Friday.
President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S.
nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved
in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to
the United States, as sought by U.S. senators Richard Durbin and
Patrick Leahy.
Duterte's move comes after the U.S. Congress approved a 2020
budget that contains a provision introduced by the senators
against anyone involved in holding de Lima, who was charged with
drug offences in early 2017 after she led an investigation into
mass killings during Duterte's notorious anti-drugs crackdown.
"We will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our
processes as a sovereign state," Philippine presidential
spokesman Salvador Panelo told a regular news conference.
The Philippines grants visa-free entry for up to 30 days to
Americans, 792,000 of whom visited in the first nine months of
2019, nearly 13% of foreign arrivals, government data showed.
The U.S. embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Panelo said travel restrictions over de Lima's detention
were nonsense because she was not wrongfully imprisoned but
detained pending trial for crimes.
"The case of Senator de Lima is not one of persecution but
of prosecution," he said.
Duterte makes no secret of his disdain for the United States
and what he considers its hypocrisy and interference, though he
admits that most Filipinos and his military have high regard for
their country's former colonial ruler.
The United States is the Philippines biggest defence ally
and its main source of Western influence. Millions of Filipinos
have relatives who are U.S. citizens.
De Lima, a justice minister in a former administration, on
Wednesday expressed what she described as overwhelming gratitude
to the U.S. Congress for its help.
She has won numerous awards from human rights groups, who
consider her a prisoner of conscience.
She has constantly spoken out against Duterte and been
calling for an international investigation into his war on
drugs, in which thousands of people have been killed.
Police say those killed were drug dealers who resisted
arrest, but activists believe many of the killings were murders.