EDITORIAL - Riot bad. Overreacting worse.

Maybe our senators have grown tired of conducting the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona four days a week and needed to have a diversion. Or maybe they are simply being Filipino, with that good old tendency to go overboard.

While television cameras got the nation riveted on the impeachment trial, little did anyone know the senators could still find the time to tackle other matters, much less have the energy to react to something with great belligerence.

But that is how our honorable senators reacted on seeing video footages of the riot that erupted in Buenos Aires when little-known Ormoc-born Cebu-based Filipino fighter Jonriel Casimero knocked out Argentinian Luis Lazarte for the vacant IBF lightflyweight title.

The senators promptly issued a resolution condemning the attack by the Argentinian sore losers on Casimero and his handlers. But they did not stop there. They also asked for the recall of our ambassador to Argentina, and for his counterpart in the Philippines to explain.

The condemnation is precise, as the behavior of Argentinian fans clearly deserves the ire of all fans, in whatever sport, all over the world. Asking the Argentine ambassador to explain, as he in fact already did, is also in keeping with such incidents.

But demanding the recall of the Philippine ambassador to Argentina is a little too much. It is not an appropriate reaction of a nation over an incident in which the counterpart nation is clearly not a party to officially.

The physical attack on Casimero and his Filipino entourage was without doubt a very ugly incident. But if anything, it was ugly only in the perspective of sports, perhaps even damaging to the image of Argentinians as a people.

But there was none of the government to government conflict that would require the recall of ambassadors, an act normally understood as a straining of diplomatic relations, and a big step toward what hopefully will not result in a breaking of such relations.

The strongly worded condemnation is enough. The apology by the Argentinian ambassador is enough. Let us not cause a diplomatic row over the incident. And Senator Tito Sotto should not make a fool of himself by daring the Argentinian fighter to a fight “20 years ago.”