Teddyboy accepts UN envoy post

MANILA, Philippines – Veteran journalist Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr. has accepted the post of Philippine permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

Locsin, who turns 68 in November, will be a political appointee at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Ambassadors nominated by the President are subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

Locsin said he met with the President on Thursday night in Bahay Pangarap, the Chief Executive’s official residence, and talked about matters he would not elaborate on.

Locsin said the President came by helicopter from Bulacan.

“He offered... and I accepted,” Locsin said via social networking site Twitter.

“I have family in Davao. The late Chito Ayala’s so we had that to talk about,” Locsin said, referring to the prominent businessman and pro-democracy advocate in the south.

Locsin will replace Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre, who landed in the news last week due to a complaint filed by a former domestic worker, Milagros Braza, for alleged maltreatment.

Braza called on the DFA to immediately act on her complaint.

Locsin said it was good that he need not assume his post right away as “it takes time to move.”

Locsin, a lawyer, was a newspaper publisher and representative for the first district of Makati City from 2001 to 2010.

He currently does the editorial segment titled “Teditorial” for ANC’s nightly newscast, The World Tonight and hosts the show, #NoFilter.

He also served as presidential spokesperson, legal counsel and speechwriter of former president Corazon Aquino.

He is married to Ma. Lourdes Barcelon, who ran in the last elections to take his previous position in Congress under the Liberal Party but lost to Monique Yasmin Lagdameo of PDP-Laban.

In 2012, Locsin was nominated to replace Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was ousted after he was found guilty by an impeachment court of failing to fully disclose his assets. Then president Benigno Aquino III named Maria Lourdes Sereno to the post.

Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar announced the appointment of Locsin after they talked on Saturday.

Locsin will assume the post amid the Philippines’ uneasy relationship with the UN over Duterte’s brutal crackdown on drug offenders.

The UN has repeatedly expressed concern over the spate of killings in the country which had been a direct result of the government’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs and crime.

The statements drew the ire of Duterte, who called the international body “stupid” for supposedly failing to understand the seriousness of the drug problem in the Philippines.

He also labeled UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a “fool” for denouncing the supposed human rights violations in the country. The President even went as far as threatening to pull the Philippines out of the UN but later on claimed that he was just joking.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein scored Duterte’s “striking lack of understanding of human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe” and called on the Philippines to respect the rule of law and human rights in its campaign against illegal drugs.