The Department of Foreign Affairs distanced itself on Monday from a controversial statement made by Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Teodoro Locsin Jr. on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines completely disassociates itself from the statement made on Twitter by Ambassador Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.," the DFA said.
"Such statement was made in his strictly personal capacity," it added.
In the since deleted tweet, Locsin, a DFA secretary in the Duterte administration, was responding to a tweet and explained why Palestinian children should be killed.
"That's why Palestinian children should be killed; they might grow up to become as gullible as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel; not that they could stop them, but that's no excuse," he said.
"They are Muslims. They could stage mass suicide attacks against Hamas until the latter ran out of bullets. You know, do it with the same courage as white people showed to win their freedom as in the cases of…uh, let's see now, uh…uh… well never mind. It's a thought," he added.
The tweet, which quickly spread on the Internet, earned the ire of many netizens, including foreign nationals.
Palestinian children are at the receiving end of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Sunni-Islamic extremist Hamas.
Locsin, who is also President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s special envoy to China, has apologized for the tweet, but clarified that it was a "sarcastic response to a tweet."
"I immediately deleted my sarcastic response to a tweet as I realized it could be misconstrued and retweeted to incite," he said.
"My apologies to those who did misconstrue my sentiments and did, in fact, get triggered — I obviously 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," he said.
House lawmakers, led by Kabayan Partylist Rep. Ron Salo and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Adiong, ganged up on Locsin over his statement.
Salo said Locsin's statement may jeopardize the safety of Filipino diplomats, particularly those in the Middle East, while endangering Filipinos all over the world.
Locsin's remark "incites hatred and hostility" not only against Palestine but also toward all Muslims, Salo said.
"There is no room in Philippine society, much more in the high offices of government, for the dangerous, bigoted, and Islamophobic rhetoric that is palpable," Adiong chimed in.
"Under no circumstance is the killing of Palestinian children justified, and it is no laughing matter when more than a thousand Palestinian children have lost their lives in Gaza within this past week alone," he said.
"May your statement land on deaf ears," Adiong added.
@tribunephl_jom @tribunephl_eao