Sen. Erwin Tulfo on Monday said it would be best for Chinese ambassador Jing Quan to return to China rather than wait to be declared persona non grata by the Philippine government.
“Siya nagsabi ‘i-persona non grata niyo ako. Ano pang hinihintay niyo?’ Parang ganon, di ba? …Pero mas maganda siguro unahan na niya, di ba? Bakit niya pa aantayin mag-persona? Why wait for persona non grata. Then just go home, bbali-bbali,” Tulfo said in an interview with Senate media.
He said declaring a Chinese ambassador of such character as persona non grata is appropriate since Jing has acted in an undiplomatic manner.
“If you are a diplomat, you have to tone down…because you are a diplomat representing your country, you represent your people, your leader,” Tulfo said.
Instead of softening his language, Tulfo said Jing has been inflaming already strained relations between the Philippines and China amid ongoing disputes in the West Philippine Sea.
He stressed that the Philippines has consistently maintained its stance based on the 2016 Arbitral Award, which China continues to disregard.
“Ilang taon na po ito. Wala tayong ginagawa sa kanila…Tayo na po ang binabangga, pinapalayas sa dagat mismo natin. So, paano yung sinasabing diplomacy? Anong klase po yun, di ba? Dapat mag-respetuhan tayo na hindi ganon. Hindi yung ba brasuhin mo, sasabihin mo na ‘Kayang-kaya namin kayong talunin. I think that’s not the right statements that one diplomat should be making,” Tulfo also said.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said during a budget hearing for the Department of National Defense (DND) and its attached agencies that the defense department remains consistent in rejecting claims made by the Chinese envoy.
“Meron pong isa na sinabi niya ‘okay, you cut military communications, but you lose.’ So, ibig sabihin, may pagbabanta na po doon. At dalawang beses po niyang sinabi po yan,” Teodoro said, noting that the DND refutes allegations framing the Philippines as a troublemaker.
Teodoro added that the DND rejects narratives suggesting that Batanes is part of China or that Chinese vessels can freely operate within Philippine territorial waters.
Following the envoy’s public comments, Tulfo filed Senate Resolution No. 239, expressing the Senate’s serious concern over recent remarks made by Jing.
The resolution urges the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to recommend declaring Jing persona non grata due to the severity of his statements and their implications for Philippine sovereignty, national dignity, and bilateral relations.
“The DFA characterized Ambassador Jing’s choice of words as regrettable, saying they conveyed a ‘thinly veiled threat of the use of force, which is hardly helpful in the context of the complicated bilateral ties between the Philippines and China,’” Tulfo said in the resolution filed on October 16.
He noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. observed that the statement “sounds very much to me like a threat and it is not a very diplomatic statement to make,” warranting further discussion and clarification with the envoy.
On October 19, the DFA formally summoned Jing to convey the government’s serious concern and strong objection to his public statements, underscoring the gravity of the issue and its impact on diplomatic relations.