Marcos does not want Chinese ambassador expelled, says Palace

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not signaled any intent to declare China’s ambassador persona non grata, the Palace said on Monday, October 19, though the Chinese diplomat today has been officially summoned by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“We know the president’s view. He would not want this kind of declaration, against any representative of another country here in our country,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro told reporters in Filipino at a briefing. She was asked about calls from senators and congressmen to expel Ambassador Jing Quan.

On the same day, Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro formally summoned Jing and told him his October 15 remarks, said at a chance interview, were “provocative and unacceptable,” the DFA said in a statement. 

The department also rebuked the Chinese embassy for its public attacks on lawmakers. It was “not the place of a foreign mission to publicly criticize or taunt Philippine officials and legislators who are acting within their mandates,” the DFA said. It reserved the right to take further diplomatic action, but did not say what that could involve or how Jing responded.

Castro said the Palace respected the views of lawmakers seeking Jing’s expulsion, but that Marcos would not go down this road as of yet. 

“Everything he says can affect our country and our people,” she said.  

The DFA has previously described declaring a diplomat persona non grata as an “option of last resort” that carries heavy diplomatic consequences.  

JUST IN: Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro summons Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan to formally object to remarks he made last week, which the DFA says conveyed a threat of the use of force against the Philippines. @philstarnews https://t.co/QXpMwqYpwM

Jing made the remarks in question to reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Quezon City last week. Denying that China was a troublemaker, he said the Philippines should feel fortunate to have China as a neighbor. “If we want to use force, we may easily win,” he said, adding that China would not do so because it loves peace.  

That evening, the DFA said the diplomat's words would seem to convey a “thinly veiled threat of the use of force." 

Marcos reacted on October 16 and said the remark “sounds very much to me like a threat” and that he wanted to understand what the ambassador meant.   

The embassy accused the DFA of selectively quoting and overinterpreting the ambassador. As senators called for Jing’s expulsion, the embassy dared them on Facebook: “Is this threat or coercion? But anyway, just do it. Otherwise, STOP BLUFFING.”  

Sen. Erwin Tulfo earlier said the Senate majority plans to file a resolution seeking to have Jing declared persona non grata.

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