Unlike ambassadors and other diplomats, consular officers normally do not enjoy full immunity from arrest, detention and prosecution in the host country. The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which is different from the convention on diplomatic relations, only details how consular officers must be treated in case the “receiving State” or host country decides to subject them to criminal prosecution.
One provision states: “Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.” For sure, double murder and frustrated murder constitute “a grave crime.”
The convention, however, is not being applied to the individuals involved in an argument in a restaurant in Cebu the other day wherein a Chinese consular officer allegedly shot dead two of her Chinese colleagues and wounded their consul general. The suspect and her husband, who both claimed not to speak English, did not resist being taken in for police questioning.
The Philippine government says full diplomatic immunity was extended to consular officers of both countries under a bilateral agreement approved in 2009 that amended the Vienna Convention. Probably because the victims and suspects are all Chinese citizens working in their own consulate, the Philippine government is readily sending all of them back to their country. Their prosecution in China is certain to be infinitely faster than in the Philippines, with the punishment implemented swiftly.
Before the suspects are sent back, however, the Philippine government must be reassured that the argument was not over any anomalous activity involving Filipinos. Since the shooting over lunch celebrating the birthday of wounded Consul General Song Rong Hua, there have been ugly speculations about what might have prompted the principal suspect, Guo Jing, to open fire on her boss and two consulate colleagues. You don’t take two lives and try to take a third over trivial matters. The two governments must put to rest suspicions that the argument was over illegal activities or money deals gone sour involving Filipinos.