Sotto on spat with Chinese embassy spox: I prefer to be annoying

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III would not  let  the Chinese embassy’s latest remark against him pass.

“When someone triggers you to react and you do not, it’s annoying! I prefer to be annoying!” Sotto said in a Viber message to reporters on Thursday.

Sotto was asked about the embassy’s  latest statement, directly addressed to him after  he countered China’s criticisms against Senate Resolution No. 256. 

Approved by the Senate on Monday,  the resolution condemned China’s tirades against Filipino officials  and politicians defending the country’s sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea.

READ: Senate approves resolution vs Chinese embassy remarks

Embassy spokesperson Ji Lingpeng  rejected the measure, saying it was “nothing but a political stunt.” 

In response on Tuesday,  Sotto noted Ji’s claim that Philippine officials were intimidating Chinese diplomats “yet he continues to speak disrespectfully against us and calling the Senate resolution a mere political stunt.”

“I can say the same thing to him that he knows little about how diplomacy works.  Respect begets respect,” the Senate leader said. 

READ: Sotto says China embassy spokesperson ‘knows little about’ diplomacy

To insinuations that they are rude,  Li reminded Sotto how a senator, during a  plenary session,  had told  Chinese diplomats to leave the Philippines.

“You also say we are disrespectful. Yet some senators labelled China as bully, called the Chinese Embassy a “bad guest” or a “troll farm”. Is that what you call respect?” the embassy spokesman also said.

Sen. JV Ejercito, meanwhile, denied Li’s claim that some senators have been threatening and intimidating the embassy, noting a proposal to declare Chinese diplomats “persona non grata.”

“We are not intimidating anybody, not even the Chinese officials,” Ejercito said in an interview at the Senate. 

“We are just stating the sense of the Senate and most of us, the majority are in unison in standing up for what is right and again for  fighting for what the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) ruling has given our country. Whatever our rights are, we are fighting for them,” he pointed out.

The possibility of  declaring Chinese embassy Deputy Spokesperson Guo Wei persona non grata was earlier floated by Sotto.  

READ: Sotto: Make Chinese embassy deputy spokesperson persona non grata

Ejercito though lamented that Chinese officials in the county, citing in particular ambassador to Manila Jing Quan, have been hostile when they should  have been fostering camaraderie between the two countries.

He reiterated his call to replace the ambassador.

“Instead of dousing the fire with cold water, he is adding fuel to it. So I think it would be better to replace him with someone who is more diplomatic in dealing with the host country.” Ejercito said. 

While he did not back the resolution against China, Sen. Robin Padilla stood by the Senate and actions of his colleagues.

“For me, whatever the Senate does is our decision because we do not involve the Executive or the Judiciary in it. That is solely the Senate’s decision.,” Padilla said in a separate interview.

“So whatever our position may be, no one can say it is wrong because it is the decision of the senators,” he added.

Padilla echoed  President  Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s “firm  and diplomatic”approach toward China amid territorial disputes between the two nations.

“Let us not be rude,” reiterating his stand against Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela’s use of altered images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in a forum he attended last month./dl