Wenceslao: ‘Boba’?
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin continues to endure the backlash generated by his calling Vice President Leni Robredo, a lawyer, “boba” or “stupid,” even “an idiot.” President Duterte may have cursed former United States president Barack Obama and even at one time called God “stupid” but he has always been the gentleman to Robredo, never calling her names.
Locsin is relatively new to the post but he seems determined to out-tuta the other Cabinet officials, even oldies like Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol. Piñol it was who “sweet-talked” with the crew of the fishing boat Gem-Vir that was rammed by a Chinese boat on Recto Bank. He and the policemen he brought along were so persuasive the fishermen, who had said the ramming was intentional, already said they were no longer sure about that claim.
Before he joined the government, Locsin got so enamored with social media he used Twitter too often for his own good. I remember that he got so bad in his tweets his children chided him and told him to stop tweeting altogether. Apparently, his new position in government failed to change his old obnoxious ways.
I like former congressman Gary Alejano’s take on the incident. I agree with him when he said that the Duterte administration does have a way of exposing the obnoxious ways of officials who, before they became supporters of President Duterte, sported decent enough image. Locsin became a pro-Duterte troll before he became Foreign Affairs secretary.
The social media machinery of the so-called diehard Duterte supporters and even the powerful social media machinery set up by the Marcoses have long played dirty tricks on Robredo, spreading fake news and posting memes with fake quotes that would portray her as dumb. So Locsin wasn’t an original at all. What he spewed out against Robredo was the result of regularly imbibing the “Robredo is dumb” line of Duterte and Marcos trolls.
Locsin is a good writer. He used to write the speeches of the ordinary housewife who was also described by her critics as TWA (“talagang walang alam”) but later became his superior: the late former president Corazon Aquino. It is thus surprising he would be name-calling Robredo considering his proximity to a “TWA” for years.
I would like to think, though, that Twitter convinced Locsin he could be a wit (Merriam-Webster’s definition: “an imaginatively perceptive and articulate individual especially skilled in banter or persiflage”). But while he may be a good writer, a wit he is not. His insults do not amuse. He just does not know his limitations.
Besides, his oversized ego is not helping him in that. He is condescending of people he believes are intellectually inferior to him. Apparently, the author of “Desiderata” directed one line at people like him: “Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others; even the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story.”
On this, I have something more to say in my next column.