WE DENOUNCE Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s execrable arrogance and boorishness when he cursed Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Jhesset Enano for doing her job.

Live tweeting on events at the tail-end of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit in Thailand, Enano posted a photo of Locsin sitting in for President Rodrigo Duterte at the closing ceremony with this caption:

“LOOK: Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. @teddyboylocsin sits with other world leaders at the closing ceremony of the 35th Asean Summit in Thailand. President Duterte appears to have skipped this event, too.”

Before this, she had also tweeted that Duterte, who had foregone quake-devastated areas of Mindanao to attend the summit, had also skipped the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership summit and the handover of the Asean chairmanship from Thailand to Vietnam.

For reasons perhaps only he can comprehend, Locsin responded with this tweet:

“Uh, did you get the putangina I sent you? That’s the last event, purely ceremonial and short. Jokowi had left, Mahathir too.”

This is unacceptable behavior from the country’s top diplomat, the person expected to project the best of the Philippines.

Enano was clearly doing her job and simply reporting the fact that Duterte was not there.

How anyone can see malice in that is incomprehensible.

Clearly Locsin owes not only Enano but the country an apology for treating a citizen of the Republic so unjustly. (By National Union of Journalists of the Philippines)