The chairman of the House Committee on Revision of Laws on Monday, February 8, asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to declare “persona non grata” a Polish vice consul and his unidentified “boss” for the latter’s display of arrogance and for the insulting remarks thrown at Filipinos following a hit-and-run incident in Zambales.
“I am also dismayed because I was of the impression that Poland is home to gentle, kind and well-mannered individuals just like our well-loved Pope and Saint, Saint John Paul II,” Zambales Rep. Cheryl Deloso-Montalla said in a privilege speech delivered during Monday’s plenary session.
Deloso-Montalla said Vice Consul Bartosz Woznicko had declared that “Fiipinos are scammers” when he was flagged down in a police checkpoint in Masinloc town for being involved in a hit-and-run incident in neighboring Candelaria town last Thursday, February 4.
Woznicko was then driving for an unidentified passenger whom Deloso-Montalla surmised as the diplomat’s “boss.”
Citing police reports, the lady solon said that Woznicko, who drove Kia Grand Carnival with license plate 9251, was speeding in Barangay Malimanga, Candelaria when his car sideswiped a motorcycle whose driver and passenger were thrown off. Both sustained injuries.
The “jobless driver” fractured both of his arms and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital.
After receiving an alert from the Candelaria police, policemen from neighboring Masinloc were able to intercept the Kia in a checkpoint they set up.
Upon the request of the victims, Deloso-Montalla sent two lawyers to Masinloc.
It was during negotiations that Woznicko threw insults at the lawyers and the policemen. His passenger also alighted from the car and threatened to report them to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for harassing them.
“Not contented with his verbal insults to them and talking in the most reprehensible manner, he further said that he will make sure that Filipinos will never get European visas and that his government will see Filipinos in a bad light after the incident,” said Montalla, this time referring to the driver.
Montalla admitted that her legal team “attempted to sway’ the vice consul to a compromise deal “that is acceptable to both parties” in order to avoid litigation.
However, the consul said he was only willing to shell out P10,000 for the hospitalization of the driver, then added that the victims “are poor anyway.”
According to the solon they expected hospital expenses to reach to a minimum P60,000 because the motorcycle driver completely fractured both arms.
She said criminal complaints will be filed against the Polish consular official, pointing out that under the Vienna Convention of 1963, diplomatic immunity will not cover the “vice consul and his unidentified boss.”
Citing a Supreme Court ruling, Deloso-Montalla said that the application of “functional immunity” or capacity applies only in the performance of a diplomat of official functions.
“We cannot let this disgraceful acts of Vice Consul Wozniczko and his unidentified ‘boss” pass - not today, not in Zambales and definitely not in the Philippines, ever!” she declared.