Locsin takes his oath as new DFA chief

President Rodrigo Duterte administers the oath to newly-appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace on October 17, 2018. SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

 

(Eagle News) — Former Philippine envoy to the United Nations, Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr., took his oath as the new secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, taking over from Alan Peter Cayetano, who filed his candidacy for the 2019 mid-term elections.

Locsin was sworn in as DFA secretary by President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, October 17.

The President chose Locsin, whom he had appointed earlier in 2016 as Philippine envoy to the United Nations, as the new Foreign Affairs secretary and announced last week that he was hoping that Locsin would accept his offer.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, Duterte said that he was “honored” that Locsin accepted the position.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Thursday, Oct. 18, said the President only had “one message” to Locsin and that was for him to “be truthful, nothing more.”

Cayetano last week had already bid goodbye to this DFA family. He asked them to fully support Locsin as the new DFA chief.

“I think he could do a better job than I did but he needs your support,” said Cayetano said in his message last week in his last flag retreat ceremony at the DFA-Office of Consular Affairs ASEANA in Parañaque City.

“It’s tailor made for him. I’ve seen him in action and I’m looking forward to great things he’ll be able to do for the country and for the OFWs,” he said of Locsin as the new head of DFA.

Former DFA secretary Albert del Rosario also welcomed the former UN envoy’s appointment, saying that “as a lawyer, journalist, businessman, politician and diplomat, Amb. Teddyboy Locsin Jr. is known to be highly intelligent, articulate and independent-minded.”

“There is no doubt that – with his multi-disciplined skills to be combined with personal conviction towards advancing our national interest at all times – Amb. Locsin will be able to more effectively move forward our nation’s defined foreign policy pillars encompassing the promotion of our national security, enhancement of our economic diplomacy and the promotion of the welfare of our Filipinos overseas,” Del Rosario said in a statement.

Earlier, on October 12, Locsin, in a tweet, said that he planned to end “fitbit diplomacy” when he assumes the DFA post.

“As SFA I will end fitbit diplomacy. UN staff do all the work before PH delegations arrive; planchado; yet my people are running around like they have to complete 10,000 steps even if all work is done just so PH delegates look like they assigned them something new to do. No more,” he said in his tweet.

(Eagle News Service)