Bridges

It is bad enough that they are trying to burn our house down. But should they also try and tear down bridges to our neighbors?

Our diplomatic relations with China is, well, um, in a rather delicate episode. Their diplomats here are complaining rather loudly about how undiplomatically they are being treated.

Or rather, how irresponsible statements are being made by seriously unfit people driven by the narrow desire to simply make political noise. In the process, our foreign relations, international confidence in our diplomatic commitment and, yes, the very sanity of our politics is coming into serious question.

Some of our political players are simply too excited that they fall overboard and injure the nation’s best interests. That is not the best means to conserve whatever global respect we still have left.

Remember that day when Sen. Jamby Madrigal went on a rampage, waving a photocopy of an official communication from the Chinese embassy and claiming that a handwritten note therein read “copy for FG.” It turned out the note actually read “copy for FGI” — the initials of the official in charge of the NEDA’s public investments sector.

Confronted with the facts of the case — or the Truth, which is the currently fashionable term among those who want chaos in the streets — the senator did not apologize. She added the totally unwarranted insinuation that the official concerned, because had FG in his initials, must be the First Gentleman’s “bagman.”

Which reminds me of rumors circulated in opposition circles a while back that claimed that the First Gentleman had extensive smuggling operations in Subic because the place was crawling with trucks with the markings “FG” on them. It turns out the trucking company referred to was owned by a certain Fred Galang.

But while those rumors circulated, did anybody bother to ask: Why in heaven’s name would Mike Arroyo, if he were trucking things out of Subic, mark his trucks “FG”? The man had been accused of many things, but never of lacking common sense.

There are other similarly idiotic things emanating from the opposition text brigades of late. But we will deal with the later, lest we lose track of the subject at hand.

While Sen. Madrigal was on that rampage, waving a seriously misinterpreted letter from the Chinese commercial attaché, she basically implied that a foreign embassy was involved in a criminal conspiracy.

Implied might be a polite way of putting it. She asked that the Chinese diplomats be subpoenaed by the Senate and be declared persona non grata if they refused to appear.

None of the senators sitting around that raucous hearing bothered to educate Madrigal there and then to prevent an individual gaffe from ballooning into an institutional debacle. What the senator is asking for is simply not done. It violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and all standard civilized practices relating to the treatment of diplomats.

In another country, Madrigal’s irresponsible utterance could have led to outright severance of diplomatic relations. Fortunately, the Chinese diplomats are exercising a great deal of patience. The Chinese ambassador might be hopping mad, and justly so, but he has restrained himself thus far from filing a formal diplomatic protest that might put our diplomatic partnership in serious jeopardy.

If Madrigal carries on as she has been doing, we might as well plant dynamite under our diplomatic bridges and bid the rest of the world farewell.

Senators Alan Cayetano and Mar Roxas, who co-chair this hearing that is quickly degenerating into a farce, should have acted quickly to contain the damage by issuing a statement that no subpoenas will be issued to diplomats. Senate President Manuel Villar, in order to protect the institution he leads, should have formally apologized to the Chinese Embassy for the utterances of one loose cannon in that chamber.

But none of the three gentlemen have seen it fit to do what they should have done as statesmen.

That is a serious act of omission in itself. In our institutional set-up, the Senate has a special role to play in our foreign relations. It is the chamber that ratifies treaties. Our senators are expected to act as statesmen, sensitive to the protocols of proper diplomatic behavior.

Remember when, a few months ago, Senator Miriam Santiago, in the course of an outburst, managed to offend Chinese people? The very next day, in accordance with her status as a Senator of the Republic and all the diplomatic responsibilities that role carries, publicly apologized for her utterance.

I doubt if Senator Madrigal will do the same. Doing so requires a certain degree of intellectual seriousness so that official role is put above personal proclivity.

I doubt if Senator Madrigal bothered to review the Vienna Convention. Or even bothered to push herself to be aware that such a thing exists.

Otherwise she might have exuded a little contrition. But we have seen none of that. Instead, what we have seen is a serious overdose of senatorial arrogance that needs to be moderated.

The Senate is a collegial body. As such it must take collegial responsibility for immoderate behavior on the part of its members.

It is not enough that some senators heckle a colleague behind her back. They must try and educate her. For better or for worse, she is an elected Senator of the Republic.