MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confronted a group of protesters who were calling for measures to save Filipino workers in the Middle East in front of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pasay City yesterday.
The irate Locsin faced the protesters, who included members of the militant group Migrante International and relatives of Filipino workers in the Middle East.
He even challenged the protesters to punch him.
“I shouted with a fist, ‘Duterte!’ Silence. So I tried it again, this time shouting, ‘makibaka!’ (join the fight) Nothing. So I tried, ‘bugbugin nyo ako.’ (beat me up!) Still nothing,” Locsin said on Twitter.
The protesters were calling on the government to save the lives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and blaming the United States for the tensions in the Middle East.
Locsin told the protesters that the government, through taxpayers’ money, will bring back the OFWs to the country.
“Through the taxes that you pay, the Filipino people pay, we will bring our people back. Because this is where they belong. If they want to, OK?” Locsin told the protesters.
Earlier, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the mandatory evacuation of Filipinos in Iraq would continue despite easing tensions in the Middle East.