Chinese ambassador says sorry to MMDA chief over car bump

No less than Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing apologized a week after another Chinese diplomat rear-ended a private car—one that happened to be carrying Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Francis Tolentino.

An MMDA statement on Friday said the ambassador apologized to Tolentino in a letter dated April 9 for the “misconduct” shown by Wang Ben, the Chinese Embassy’s first secretary.

Wang was in a white Mitsubishi Montero when he rear-ended Tolentino’s Honda Civic on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City around 8 p.m. on April 5, the MMDA chief said in a radio interview.

Wang hit the MMDA chief’s vehicle because he had grown impatient with the slow-moving traffic at that time. When Tolentino and his driver got off to confront the Chinese, Wang complained that they were moving too slow and that he was in a hurry for a meeting with the ambassador.

Wang, who appeared to be drunk, showed a photocopy of his ID and then suddenly drove off in the middle of their exchange, Tolentino said.

Tolentino and his driver tried to chase the Montero while alerting MMDA traffic enforcers in Pasay, including a team posted near the LRT station on Buendia. The “dragnet,” however, failed to intercept Wang’s vehicle.

In Friday’s statement, the MMDA quoted Keqing as saying that all Chinese Embassy staff members had been reminded to strictly observe traffic rules in their host country and exercise extreme caution on the road.

“I welcome this respectable act by the Honorable Ambassador Ma Keqing, and I thank her for not tolerating the misconduct committed by an embassy official,” Tolentino said in the statement.

“I just hope that incidents like that won’t happen again, even as we adhere to the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.  Let’s just forgive and forget,” he said.