A senior Filipino diplomat known for his past expletive-laced tirade against China joined a coast guard trip to the disputed South China Sea last week and saw Beijing’s ships block and nearly collide with Philippine vessels, including one he was on.
Teodoro Locsin Jr. was on one of two Philippine coast guard vessels that escorted two Philippine boats to deliver food and other supplies to a Filipino marine territorial outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal on Oct. 4, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear why the public disclosure of his participation in the trip was delayed.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Locsin, 74, as a special envoy to China in August, in addition to his role as the Philippine ambassador to the United Kingdom based in London.
“As special envoy, he is expected to be up to date on the matters that he will discuss with China and there is no better way to understand the West Philippine Sea issue than to see, for himself, what is happening in our own waters,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said, using the Philippine name for the South China Sea waters nearer the country’s western coast.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Locsin, 74, as a special envoy to China in August, in addition to his role as the Philippine ambassador to the United Kingdom based in London.
As the Philippine foreign secretary under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, Locsin often lashed out with blunt language on social media at China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters.
You’re like an ugly oaf forcing your attentions on a handsome guy who wants to be a friend; not to father a Chinese province,” Locsin, a journalist, Harvard-educated lawyer and politician, said in a separate May 2021 tweet.
The incident was witnessed by several journalists, including from The Associated Press, who were invited by the Philippine coast guard to join the trip as part of a strategy aimed at exposing aggressive Chinese actions in the South China Sea.
A major clash in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, could potentially involve the United States, which has vowed to defend the Philippines, its treaty ally, if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under armed attack.
Aside from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved for decades in the territorial disputes, a long-feared flashpoint in Asia.
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