Whether or not to allow the entry of a foreign national to a country’s territory is the latter’s unlimited sole prerogative. 

The action of a panel of the United States Senate to legislate denial of entry to any Philippine official involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila De Lima is an enforcement of American immigration laws and does not intrude into Philippine sovereignty.

The implementation of an immigration policy belongs to the host State’s exclusive sovereign jurisdiction.

The basis of such exclusionary act of sovereignty is beyond question by other governments or parties.

It is the Philippine officials who are assailing as meddling the US Senate panel’s action who are the ones interfering in in the exercise of American sovereign right. 

The freedom of public discourse allows officials of one country to criticize or even condemn the acts of officials of another country for genuinely perceived or actual violations of civil, political and human rights of the latter’s own citizens. 

This is more true in cases of human rights violations because the protection, promotion and fulfillment of human rights are global concerns which transcend national boundaries, sovereign tenets and parochial prejudices. 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN