Teddy Locsin loses cool over clams issue

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. yesterday again lost his cool over the clam issue as he reacted to a netizen saying “China granting permission and helping to save clams will erode the Philippines’ victory in the arbitral tribunal.”

“If this clam issue ends up with China GRANTING us PERMISSION and even help to save the clams – thereby eroding our victory in the Hague – I will tear out your genitals with pliers. Putrefaction ang ina niyo. Just leave things alone you idiotesses,” Locsin tweeted.

The netizen replied to Locsin and tweeted: “Interesting comments from the Philippines’ foreign affairs minister after President Duterte happily met China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing for the Belt and Road Forum and discussed the maritime dispute.”

Locsin tweeted back and said “interesting? Brilliant you mean and definitive. Leave that issue alone. Period. Or armor your genitals.”

Last week, the secretary got back at the netizen for calling him a “traitor” and challenged to bring to him the clams in Scarborough Shoal to testify against the Chinese and their activities.

The netizen tweeted “you don’t like clams and corals kaya kahit nakawin sa atin ito okay lang sayo (so even if they steal them, it’s ok with you)? Shame on you! Traydor sa bayan (Traitor to the country)!”

Locsin said the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) news report showed the extent of damage, and that Chinese poaching under the protection of Chinese gunships is an evidence.

Locsin said he would not want to be remembered in history as a “clam defender,” saying these are just food and no one will go to war for clams.

He said clams are not treasures as Chinese poaching is not an act of aggression as defined by the United Nations.

But Locsin’s Twitter follower, ophthalmologist and Eyebank founding president Dr. Minguita Padilla, pointed out to Locsin that these are not ordinary clams but endangered species.

“With all due respect… they represent more than just clams. Their poaching is but the tip of the iceberg…,” Padilla tweeted in reply to Locsin.