Muslim group files disbarment case against Locsin

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 27) — A Muslim group has filed a disbarment complaint against Ambassador to the United Kingdom Teddy Boy Locsin Jr. over his social media post to “kill Palestinian children.”

1Bangsamoro party-list wants Locsin to be held accountable for his post for “inciting to genocide, promoting Islamophobia, and hate speech.”

They called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to recall and remove Locsin from his post.

“‘Yung statement ni Atty. Locsin na ikinagulat at lalong ikinadismaya ng mga Bangsamoro ay talagang hindi lang isang beses yan, hindi twice, hindi thrice, kung hindi napakaraming beses. Makikita niyo sa Google na talagang napaka anti-Muslim niya,” 1Bangsa party-list president Maulana Balangi said.

[Translation: The statement of Atty. Locsin that surprised and disappointed the Bangsamoro people was really not just once, not twice, not thrice, it happened many times. You can see on Google that he is very anti-Muslim.]

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Locsin said: “That’s why Palestinian children should be killed; they might grow up to become as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel; not that they could stop them but that’s no excuse.”

Locsin later deleted his post and apologized “to those who did misconstrue my sentiments and did in fact get triggered.”

He explained that he was not advocating for the literal death of anyone, “but rather simply for the end of any ideology that condones terrorism in any way, shape or form.”

1Bangsa rejected Locsin’s apology.

“Dahil makikita natin na hindi siya 101% sinsero doon sa kanyang paghingi ng apology. Ang kanyang sinabi ay para lang doon sa mga taong na miscontrue doon sa kanyang statement. Wala na siyang ibang, kumbaga, eksplenasyon. Pero ika nga nila, the damage has been done. Kumbaga, nasaktan na ang sambayanang Muslim. More than 3 billion yung mga Muslim na kanyang sinaktan. Kasama na doon ‘yung more or less 15 Muslim Bangsamoro dito sa ating bansa,” Balangi said.

[Translation: Because we can see that he is not 101% sincere in his apology. What he said is only for those people who miscontrued his statement. He has no other, so to speak,