Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales was not harassed by immigration officials when she was barred from entering Hong Kong, the Palace said on Thursday. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the remark after Senator Risa Hontiveros “challenged” President Rodrigo Duterte to defend the “bullied” 78-year-old retired official from the Chinese government’s alleged “intimidation and retaliation.” “I challenge President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration to defend one of the country’s most accomplished public servants and bring this directly to the Chinese government, lest it be accused of siding with China against one of our country’s own citizens,” Hontiveros said in a statement. “Bullying a 78-year-old former public servant who is known for her sterling public service record is ludicrous. I call on the Chinese government to explain why it held for four hours without any explanation a former high-ranking Philippine government official and a senior citizen who simply went to Hong Kong with her grandchildren to have a vacation,” she added. Speaking to Palace reporters, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said there was no reason to file a protest over the incident. “Others want us to hit back. But you know, I asked how she was treated. Was she harassed or mistreated? If that’s so, we will not allow that. We will definitely protest, but that was not the case,” Panelo said in a Palace press briefing. “She did not complain that she was disrespected. She was just irked that her plan for her grandchildren was ruined,” he added, as he told Palace reporters that she talked with Morales over the phone. “for her grandchildren,” he added. (She did not complain that she was disrespected. She was just irked that her plan for her grandchildren was ruined.) Panelo also shot down speculations that Morales was considered a threat in China’s Special Administrative Region. “That’s an assumption, they [China] doesn’t have a statement about that, right? There is no official statement. Former Ombudsman asked why [she was held]. but they didn’t tell her anything,” Panelo said. “We can’t do anything about that because it’s their right. In the same way that we don’t want to be subjected to interference with respect to how we treat people coming in, we don’t meddle with them, too,” he continued. He also added that the Palace does not have a label for Morales even after the former magistrate filed a communication against Chinese President Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity in the West Philippine Sea. “We have no label for her. She’s a Filipino citizen, and a member of the bar, and a good friend of mine years back in the College of Law. She was a fourth year [student], and I was freshman,” he said. “She is entitled to her opinion she exercises her right to freedom of expression. And we respect that, all of us,” Panelo ended. On Tuesday morning, the former ombudsman arrived with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren for a family vacation. Immigration officers, however, barred Morales from entering Hong Kong, separating her from her family. Carpio Morales flew to Hong Kong on Tuesday with her children and grandchildren for a family vacation but was barred from entering the special administrative region of China. But Hong Kong immigration officials did not explain why she was banned, even as the Philippine consulate communicated with Hong Kong officials. Carpio-Morales was later allowed to enter Hong Kong, but she decided not to push through with the vacation and instead flew back to Manila Tuesday night.“Wala tayong magagawa doon (we can’t do anything about that) because it’s their right,” Panelo said. “In the same way that we don’t want to be subjected to interference with respect to how we treat people coming in, di rin tayo makikialam sa kanila (we don’t meddle with them, too),” he added Meanwhile, detained Senator Leila de Lima said that she believes that Carpio-Morales’s travail in the hands of Chinese immigration authorities in Hongkong is in retaliation for the case she and former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario filed against China with the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in its occupation of the West Philippine Sea. Morales, who was separated from her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren and detained in a holding area for hours, was not given an official explanation on the cause of her detention or the fate of her family. Alone in an immigration holding area, De Lima said Morales had no idea if the rest of her family was also separated from each other and detained without any explanation as she was. “Will she be arrested, charged, and imprisoned in China for God knows what Chinese law she has violated? Will her whole family be dragged with her? “ The detained senator said those tense moments of being kept in the dark, wondering what is the worst that could be done to her, can lead one to mental anguish. She noted that such speculations won’t be baseless. She said immigration authorities do not treat non-citizens with the same rights as citizens. “The most that one can hope for is that she is protected by international human rights law and that the foreign country recognizes said rights,” said De Lima. “But this is China, a country not exactly known for a sterling human rights record, whether for its occupied subjects, its national minorities, or even its own citizens,” she added. For people who had been held by immigration, De Lima said those tense hours of not knowing their fate, detained for a cause that they do not know, is the closest experience to torture that they could have. She said all the world’s immigration authorities, of course, do this. However, she said, this does not mean that it is a pleasant experience. “Morales’s experience at the hands of Chinese immigration authorities is certainly no joke. It is as traumatic as any experience at detention one can get, no matter how short,” said De Lima. For a country with the world’s biggest army, and the second highest in military expenditure, she said China’s treatment of a 77-year-old grandmother as a “security threat” is absolutely pathetic. She said this only showed that even the efforts of two individuals to challenge China and its leaders before the ICC has a significant effect on the superpower. “No matter how China dismisses challenges to its absurd nine-dash claim over the WPS and the rest of the South China Sea, it continues to be concerned with an international opinion on the legitimacy of its actions,” she said. China may have the force of arms, but it cannot dictate to the world to accept the excesses of its ambitions and the parameters of its imagined right of conquest. This is why even the legal challenge of a 77-year-old grandmother has an effect on the world superpower. Despite its armor and sword, China can still be hurt by a senior woman with a sharp mind, a just cause, and a pen.