Duterte: Del Rosario should not have used diplomatic passport

MANILA, Philippines — Former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario cannot use a diplomatic passport because he is no longer part of the government, President Duterte said. 

Del Rosario’s diplomatic passport was placed in the spotlight after he was held in Hong Kong for six hours, denied entry and deported to Manila for no stated reason. ?

The former top diplomat said the disrespect he experienced was a disrespect to the Philippines because he is the bearer of a diplomatic passport that carries the seal of the country. ?

But Duterte said Del Rosario should not have used a diplomatic passport. ?

“But it was Albert representing, ‘yung nahuli sa (the one detained in) Hong Kong... Naggamit-gamit ng passport na hindi naman dapat (He used a passport even if he was not supposed to do so),” the President said during the 122nd anniversary of the Presidential Security Group last Wednesday at Malacañang. ?

“When you are no longer an employee of government, you have no business using a government diplomatic passport,” he added. ?

Days after Del Rosario was detained in Hong Kong, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that it would cancel all courtesy diplomatic passports for former foreign affairs chiefs and Philippine envoys. ?

Del Rosario has said the diplomatic passport privilege is granted by law, citing the Philippine Passport Act, which states that former secretaries of foreign affairs and ambassadors are entitled to diplomatic passports and are “imbued with diplomatic status.”?

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has denied that the cancellation was unlawful. ?

“It is a courtesy to those who have ceased doing the job requiring blue passports. We don’t want to have them out there dishonored by foreign immigration by rejection.

 Just protecting national honor, sir. We may restore it but insist it be the only passport,” Locsin said in a recent Twitter post. ?

Del Rosario previously said his detention and deportation might have been a retaliation for filing a case against China over its supposed “crimes” in the South China Sea. Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous territory of China.

He and former ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales have asked International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to conduct a preliminary examination on China’s actions in the South China Sea, including the intimidation of Filipino fishermen and the building of military structures that destroyed marine ecosystems, resulting in “crime against humanity. “Last month, Morales and her family were also prevented from entering Hong Kong because of unspecified “immigration reasons.” The former ombudsman was held in a room at an airport for about three hours.