The Philippines skipped the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in an attempt to encourage China to spare the lives of five of its nationals on death row, officials said Sunday.
President Benigno Aquino told a newspaper staying away from the ceremony to honour jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had been "in our national interest", a reference to convicted Filipinos in China.
The comments in The Daily Inquirer came the day after local press rounded on Manila's decision to apparently bow to Chinese pressure and turn down an invitation to the ceremony in Oslo.
"Our interest is to advance our citizens' needs first," the paper quoted the president as saying.
The daily said Aquino had written to Beijing seeking clemency for five Filipinos sentenced to death for drug trafficking.
"It's in our national interest that we do not, at this time, send a representative to the Nobel award rites," he told the paper ahead of the ceremony.
Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma and foreign department spokesman Eduardo Malaya confirmed the president was referring to a bid to obtain clemency for the five.
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