Locsin hit for cursing at reporter on Twitter
MANILA — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s “profane and insulting” tweet at a reporter covering President Rodrigo Duterte at the Asean summit in Bangkok was uncacceptable, uncalled for and undeserved, journalists said on Wednesday.
Locsin had tweeted “Uh, did you get the putangina I sent you? That’s the last event, purely ceremonial and short. Jokowi had left, Mahathir too” at Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Jhesset Enano on Tuesday.
The tweet was in response to, and quoted, Enano’s tweet from the Asean summit saying Locsin represented President Rodrigo Duterte “appears to have skipped this event, too.”
He had earlier quoted the same tweet and referred to Enano as “you shet.”
“This is unacceptable behavior from the country’s top diplomat, the person expected to project the best of the Philippines,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement, adding Locsin demonstrated “execrable arrogance and boorishness.”
“Enano was clearly doing her job and simply reporting the fact that Duterte was not there. How anyone can see malice in that is incomprehensible,” NUJP
also said.
In a separate statement, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said it “takes umbrage at the profane and insulting tweet addressed by Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. to PDI reporter Jhesset Enano on Nov. 5.”
“It was unbecoming of a diplomat and public official, and totally undeserved by Enano, who was doing her job reporting on President Duterte at the Asean summit with the professionalism, focus and comprehensiveness that our readers deserve.”