HONG KONG: Action star Jackie Chan apologised in a statement on his website for his remarks on Twitter about the recent bus hijacking in Manila.
The actor's tweets about the hostage crisis, which took the lives of eight Hong Kong tourists last Monday, have raised the ire of netizens who claimed they were disrespectful to the victims.
However, Chan claimed his words were simply mistranslated.
"Maybe what I said wasn't very clear and it was misunderstood. The content in my Twitter account was posted by my American assistant on my behalf, but after interpretation the posts did not entirely capture what I truly meant to say.
"What happened to the Hong Kong tourists in the Philippines was a terrible and heartbreaking tragedy. I am 100 per cent Chinese and I'm from Hong Kong. I feel grief and pain for the Hong Kong citizens who lost their lives during this unfortunate incident," said Chan in a statement.
His statement was released in both Chinese and English, perhaps to avoid any mistranslation.
"What I wanted to convey was that I won't hate Filipino people as a result of this tragic incident. If we start hating each other, it will cause great damage to both Hong Kong and the Philippines.
"As for whether or not the Filipino police in charge of the incident should be held responsible for not handling the situation appropriately, of course I don't need to comment on this matter; this should be left to the experts in this area," he explained.
"If I have caused any misunderstanding or discontent because of my incomplete thoughts and feelings posted on Twitter, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere apology."
His apology has garnered mixed reactions with netizens.
Some felt there was nothing wrong with his tweets and expressed disappointment that he caved to pressure and apologised while others felt he should have been more careful with his words in the first place.
Chan had earlier tweeted about a Filipino ex-police officer's hijacking of a busload of Hong Kong tourists in Manila on August 23 that left eight hostages dead.
Although the hijacker was later killed by a sniper's bullet, many Hong Kongers believe that he could have been taken down before any hostages came to harm and felt that the Filipino police force had mishandled the crisis.
While numerous Hong Kong celebrities slammed the Filipino police force, Chan took on a more diplomatic stance and tweeted that Hong Kongers would not feel hatred towards Filipinos just because of this incident.
Chan's tweets also appeared to be supportive of the Filipino police.
"If they killed the guy (hijacker) sooner, they will say why not negotiate first? If they negotiate first, they ask why not kill the guy sooner? So sad," tweeted Chan.
- CNA/ha
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