MANILA, Philippines — For the Philippines’ top diplomat, a Facebook meme of the country’s candidate in the 1994 Miss Universe pageant answering “before or after Duterte” when asked about the number of Philippine islands is no laughing matter.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano was irked by the meme’s implication that the Philippines has lost part of its territory as a result of China’s claims over the South China Sea.

Binibining Pilipinas-Universe candidate Charlene Gonzales, who finished in the top six in 1994, was asked by host Bob Goen during the pageant at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City how many islands there are in the country.

“High tide or low tide?” was Gonzales’ quick reply. Later, she admitted to have forgotten the exact number so she distracted everyone by throwing the question at the host, eventually answering that the country has 7,107 islands during low tide and 7,108 during high tide.

“I read an item yesterday: ‘How many islands do we have?’ It was said in the Miss Universe that it depends on the tide. Now, what they say is it depends: before or after Duterte,” Cayetano said in Filipino during the flag raising ceremony at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday.

He challenged anybody to prove that the Philippines has lost even just a part of its territory under the present administration.

“If we lost a single island during Duterte’s time, I will pack my bags, go home and I will not serve the public in any elected or appointed position, but are you willing to do the same?” he added.

Cayetano revealed that the government will take diplomatic action on the deployment of Chinese bombers in the South China Sea, but said it is not the policy of the Duterte administration to engage in “megaphone or microphone diplomacy” by announcing each and every action that it takes “unless announcing it is beneficial to us.”

“There’s so much news about the Chinese bombers in the area. Hindi po sa Pilipinas ‘yun… (That’s not in the Philippines)… Paracel, that’s a dispute between Vietnam and China,” he said.

While the Philippines won against China in the arbitral tribunal established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Cayetano said “on the ground, we were losing,” noting that Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Vietnam continued to build on the features they held.

Meanwhile, Cayetano quoted Duterte as saying that he will go to war if anyone gets natural resources from the West Philippine Sea.

Responding to calls for the government to file a diplomatic protest against China, Cayetano said it is best for the report on the bombers to be verified first.

“Is it smart for me to file a protest based on an American think tank picture or based on a front page… or should I file a protest after the military coordinates with me, verifying the information?” he said.

Cayetano stressed that he raised the South China Sea issue “to put to rest any doubt in your mind that we are not defending our nation’s interest.”

For his part, former DFA secretary Albert del Rosario said it is high time for the government to assert the country’s rightful position in the SCS.

Del Rosario said no less than the Constitution mandates the President to “defend what is lawfully ours.”

“These landings took place in a reclaimed feature in the Paracel Islands, which is within our neighborhood, bringing full militarization closer and working itself with certainty into our own backyard,” Del Rosario said.

With the decision made by the incumbent government to shelve the arbitral outcome, Del Rosario said “not only did we lose opportunities to advance our position, but we also found ourselves being thrown into reverse gear, thus allowing ourselves to be fully disadvantaged.”

Both Del Rosario and acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio believe that a diplomatic protest should be filed against China and that the Philippines should take an assertive and lawful stand against Beijing.