Pangilinan to Marcos: You sent Duterte and Romualdez to jail, you can expel China’s envoy

President Marcos accepts the credentials of Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan at Malacañang last December. Looking on is Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro.

Presidential Communications Office

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. continues to face pressure from lawmakers to expel China’s ambassador, this time from Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, who reminded him that his government was able to put former President Rodrigo Duterte and his own cousin behind bars.

In a strongly worded statement Tuesday night, Pangilinan challenged the president to take action on the Chinese ambassador.

"Mr. President, if you can send Duterte, Quiboloy and Romualdez to jail, declare POGO illegal and have them shutdown, assert our sovereignty against Chinese aggression then you can most certainly send this arrogant, insulting, crude and insolent alien back to his country of origin," Pangilinan said.

"I have witnessed and thus know that you have what it takes, Mr President. But if you don't use it, you lose it," he said, calling Chinese Ambassador Jing Quan a "hooligan" who should be sent home.

This is Pangilinan's third swipe at the diplomat in days, having previously said the ambassador can "easily leave Manila and go back to China." On Monday, Pangilinan suggested Chinese diplomats who stray from the Communist Party line risk harsh punishment at home.

In the Senate, at least two resolutions have been filed urging the executive branch to consider declaring the Chinese ambassador persona non grata or seek his expulsion. About 10 members of the House of Representatives have separately urged the president to expel Jing, who they say has "clearly overstayed his welcome."

But the Palace itself has been cool to these calls. Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said on Monday that Marcos would not want to have such a declaration for any foreign envoy in the country, though she stressed the Palace respected lawmakers' views. 

The DFA has described a persona non grata declaration as a last resort that carries high diplomatic and reciprocal costs.

Neither the Senate nor the House has the power to declare a foreign diplomat persona non grata. This is a power that's only with the executive, specifically the president and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). A sending state however can also recall a diplomat and end their functions. 

Jing, after meeting Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro on Monday, released a statement through the Chinese Embassy, saying he has been taken out of context. He accused the Philippine side of committing "smear and slander" against Beijing. 

The dispute began on October 15, when Jing, speaking to reporters after a forum in Quezon City, said China would prevail in any armed confrontation but had chosen restraint. "If we want to use force, we may easily win," he said, adding that Manila should count itself lucky to have China as a neighbor.

The DFA answered the same day with a rare public rebuke, saying the remark conveyed a "thinly veiled threat of the use of force." Marcos said the next day it "sounds very much to me like a threat" and that he wanted to hear from Jing what he meant.