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.

Asked if the Nobel boycott was linked to the effort to save prisoners' lives, Coloma said on government radio: "As our president said, we need to balance the overall national interest.

"That's the reason why we took that particular step with regard to that specific issue (Nobel award boycott) that was raised last week."

Asked if Manila's boycott was an attempt to appease China and save the lives of the five, Malaya said: "The President's remark speaks for itself. That's the line."

Chinese embassy spokesman Sun Yi confirmed Sunday that Aquino had written to Beijing over the prisoners but denied that the issue was linked to Manila's decision to skip the Nobel awards ceremony.

The official reason for the no-show was a scheduling clash but several top-level officials have admitted privately Manila wanted to appease China.

China reacted furiously to the Nobel Committee's award of this year's honour to Liu, jailed for 11 years last December on subversion charges.

It repeatedly warned governments around the world that ties would be harmed if they attended the ceremony.

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