The Department of National Defense (DND) apologized to the Chinese government after they have used a wrong logo on a banner to represent the Ministry of Defense of the People’s Republic of China during the turned over ceremony in Camp Aguinaldo last Thursday.

Arsenio Andolong, DND Public Affairs Service chief, said what they have done was a “purely unintentional mistake”.

“We have issued an official apology to the government and the people of the People’s Republic of China through His Excellency Zhao Jianhua, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Philippines,” he said.

“We are fully cognizant and grateful for the support that the government of the People’s Republic of China has been providing us and we reiterate that the DND and the AFP strictly adhere to the “One China Policy” as espoused by the Philippine Government,” he added.

Instead of using the logo of the Ministry of Defense of the People’s Republic of China the banner that was used during the turnover ceremony contains the Taiwan defense ministry logo.

“It is our sincere hope that this very unfortunate incident will not affect the cooperative and friendly relations between our two countries which has grown warmer over the past year,” Andolong said.

The turnover ceremony of a total of 3,000 units of assault rifles with three million rounds of ammunition; and 90 scopes for the sniper rifles were led by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Zhao. Robina Asido/DMS