President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. did the right thing by assuring that he will not declare China's ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan persona non grata.
This was announced by Malacañang through Undersecretary Claire Castro, the same mouthpiece who earlier said that BBM was supporting the position of Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesman of the Task Force West Philippine Sea and an official of the Philippine Coast Guard.
Tarriela had been pushing the limits of official discourse on the issue of the South China Sea, using caricatures and cartoons depicting in a negative way China President Xi Jingping. The DFA said this is a no, no.
As he is a government official dressed in official uniform, to the outside world it would look like Tarriela's diatribe against China is in fact the official position of the Philippine government. Claire Castro's earlier pronouncement that President Marcos supports Jay Tarriela has emboldened several senators like Kiko Pangilinan and Riza Hontiveros and the grandstanding Erwin Tulfo to scale up the megaphone.
Also earlier, Sen. Ping Lacson agreed with the Chinese embassy that only the President can declare Ambassador Jing Quan persona non grata and expel him from the country by revoking his diplomatic credentials. This, of course, will create plenty of diplomatic, economic, cultural and financial problems for the Philippines and for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), at a time when the Philippines has just assumed chairmanship of the group.
The 15 senators who signed a resolution condemning the public statements of the Chinese embassy made during their incendiary debate with Tarriela et. al. should realize by now that what they did was just to generate problems for the Executive Department -- Marcos, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the PH Ambassador to Beijing -- and what did they get in return? A rebuke from the President, and some photo, soundbite and media points to bolster their presence in the Senate and the national political landscape.
This problem should not have reached this level of animosity had Bongbong Marcos immediately acted on the problem of Tarriela.
For years now, the guy has been ramping up attacks on China, even if Vietnam and Malaysia are also claimants in the same SCS, and Vietnam even claims more features in that sea than China.
The reason for Tarriela's combative behavior, shared by Leila de Lima, Tulfo, Pangilinan, Hontiveros and Sotto ("let us propose a persona non grata declaration") is the influence exerted on him by a certain @GordianKnotRay or Raymond Powell, an American military adviser. This was confirmed by the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute led by Herman Tiu Laurel.
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