Ex-officials criticise Duterte administration’s soft approach towards China, as Philippine foreign ministry cancels diplomatic passports
- Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario, who was turned away from Hong Kong last week, called the move by the foreign ministry a ‘distraction’
- Del Rosario and other officials have called his criticism of China and President Xi Jinping the reason his diplomatic passport privileges were not recognised
Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario, who was unable to enter Hong Kong for a business meeting last Friday, said he could not “think of one good reason why this is happening”.
Hong Kong authorities did not say why del Rosario, who was attending board and shareholder meetings of the Indonesian Salim group-owned First Pacific, was held up at the airport. It said it reserved the right to decide which individuals are allowed to enter the territory.
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Hong Kong is governed by Beijing under the “one country, two systems” formula and enjoys certain freedoms that people on the mainland do not receive.
On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said “it is entirely within China’s sovereignty to allow or deny one’s entry”. China is pressing ahead with the development of sound and steady relations with the Philippines, he said.
In March, del Rosario and former ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales sued Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials at the International Criminal Court for “atrocious actions in the South China Sea and within Philippine territory”.
Regional commentators said both incidents would affect Hong Kong’s reputation as a place to do business.
A self-respecting nation should at least take the cudgels for any Filipino who is prejudiced, more so when he’s a former foreign secretary.
On Saturday, a statement from Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr said that all courtesy diplomatic passports issued to former Philippine ambassadors and secretaries would be cancelled.
Retired ambassador Victoria Bataclan said she would tear her diplomatic passport in response.
“I intend to tear it like the Katipunan tearing their cedulas,” said the former Philippine consul general to Hong Kong, recalling a moment in Philippine history when a group of revolutionaries in 1896 ripped up their colonial identification papers in defiance of Spain.
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Bataclan said her actions would be “a protest of China’s imperialists and its local lapdogs”.
Locsin on Monday defended his decision, saying that he sought to “prevent rejections of our diplomatic passports with impunity; courtesy does not confer Geneva rights” – a phrase that left Bataclan baffled.
The words “Geneva rights”, according to the former ambassador, “are not in the human rights lexicon”.
Both Bataclan and Lauro Baja, a retired ambassador who has served twice as president of the United Nations Security Council, hold courtesy diplomatic passports and said they have not yet received the orders to turn them in.
Bataclan estimated there are between 100 and 200 holders of courtesy diplomatic passports. According to Baja, the holders include not only retired diplomats, but also congressmen and even leaders of a religious sect.
The documents entitle their holders to the courtesies of a regular diplomatic passport, although not visa-free travel. “You still need a visa, though sometimes they will forgo the fee,” Baja said.
The diplomatic passports must be revalidated – stamped certified – by the foreign affairs department each time they are used.
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Former foreign secretary del Rosario said he revalidated his, and informed the government of his trip just before flying to Hong Kong.
Bataclan – a former ambassador to the European Union, Nordic and Baltic States, Belgium and Luxembourg – said it was the first time she had heard of a former foreign secretary treated that way.
She said what happened to del Rosario was “a deliberate act of harassment in view of what the former secretary stands for regarding China’s illegal acts in the South China Sea”.
In Manila, the inevitable social media ruckus has focused on the diplomatic passports rather than the crude disrespect shown to a former foreign secretary.
When del Rosario said that cancelling his diplomatic passport was illegal, Locsin responded in a tweet, saying that while former Philippine diplomats are entitled to the diplomatic passports, they do not give the holders diplomatic immunity.
He then tweeted his own explanation of the del Rosario deportation: “He [del Rosario] wanted to reprise what happened to Carpio-Morales who went in good faith to Hong Kong w grandkids for fun. Hence Chinese relented and let her in but she walked out. Del Rosario was testing if it would happen again; board meeting was an excuse.”
Retired ambassador Baja pointed out: “Even if he’s no longer the foreign secretary he should at least have been given a reason why he was treated that way.”
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He also noted Manila’s response. “A self-respecting nation should at least take the cudgels for any Filipino who is prejudiced, more so when he’s a former foreign secretary.”
For her part, Bataclan said Manila should “express its displeasure over this patently unfriendly act”.
Asked if she would advise del Rosario and Carpio-Morales to visit Hong Kong again, Bataclan said, “Of course – they still believe in the rule of law”.
Del Rosario said “one option for us is to, in turn, consider detaining and deporting one diplomat from the responsible state”.
He asked: “Will we be afraid to even think of this? Will we again be acquiescent?”
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