Morales: You are stupid if you don't assert your rights

The two former Philippine officials who filed the suit against Chinese President Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court (ICC) responded to remarks made by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua who called the action a "fabrication" and a "vicious" attack on the Chinese leadership.

"When you file a complaint, or you know a manifestation about something being done in your own country, do you call that vicious? You are stupid if you don't assert your rights,"  former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said in an exclusive interview with GMA News resident political analyst Richard Heydarian.

"Now he talks also of fabrication. Is it not that it's the Chinese who are fabricating, they are fabricating military installations for their air and naval strips, (And fabricating islands?) Yes, right," she added.

"If there is anyone who should be talking about vicious and fabrication, it should not be the Chinese Ambassador," Morales said.

During the same interview on GMA News Online's FYI segment, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario addressed the "disinformation" asserting that the ICC has no jurisdiction over China.

"The fact that crimes have been committed in the Philippines, and the fact that these crimes were committed when the Philippines was a state party and not yet withdrawn, I think this gives jurisdiction for the ICC to be able to go after the (specific officials of China)," Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario and Morales have accused Xi, Zhao and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi of committing crimes against humanity in connection with Beijing's activities to gain control over most of the resource-rich South China Sea.

Zhao, during a courtesy call on presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo in Malacañang earlier on Monday, expressed confidence that the communication will not prosper.

"First and foremost President Duterte and the department concerned have expressed clearly to the Chinese side the Philippine government has no role in it. It's an action by individuals and we think it's a kind of political action viciously targeting the Chinese leadership," the envoy told reporters. —Margaret Claire Layug/LDF, GMA News