38
Question-and-Answer session
Question: Have you discussed the issue of Mr Au and Wong with the Senators this morning?
Governor: No, because I raised it with the President and they obviously don't have any specific locus in that issue. I was meeting the President of the Senate, and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Question: Did you discuss the question of domestic helpers with them?
Governor: They raised it with me and I set out the position which I referred to, I think. in my press conferences and interviews yesterday.
Question: Are you going to send people to visit Mr Alan Wong in the future??
Governor: There will be regular visits from the Consul, the British Embassy, and we assured Mr Au and Mr Wong today that we would be keeping in touch with their case and that I would be keeping personally in touch with it and with the Filipino authorities. We are also taking back from Mr Au and Mr Wong some letters for their family and friends.
Question: We talked to Mr Au and Mr Wong this morning and they are very pleased about what you did yesterday. But they are a little bit worried. What Mr Wong said -- maybe he will speak to the Justice Office may be only a kind of courtesy to you. And he is not really clear on the matter. So, also, for example, last night the Justice Department -- I don't know whether he is talking about...
Governor: First of all, the Philippine's Government knows that as far as I am concerned, concern about Mr Au and Mr Wong isn't simply a ceremonial issue; isn't something that I have raised just because I was meeting the President, and now intend to forget. The whole community in Hong Kong is worried about Mr Au and Mr Wong: the Legislative Council is worried about Mr Au and Mr Wong: the media in Hong Kong are worried about them; and, of course, their family and friends are particularly concemed. As the leader of the community, as the representative of the community, when I travel abroad I intend to take a continuing interest in what happens to them and hope that I don't have to do so for too long, because we very much hope that the appeal which they have lodged will be brought forward as rapidly as possible.