Choice of Locsin as special envoy to China draws praise

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM & Malou Talosig-Bartolome @maloutalosig

a former defense chief and maritime and security experts hailed on Thursday the designation by President Marcos of Ambassador Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., the country’s man in London, to a concurrent role as special envoy of the President to China on special concerns.

Two used the word “interesting” to characterize a decision seen as an effort to give Manila more flexibility in engaging its Asian neighbor and trade partner, with which tensions rose anew after a water cannon incident on August 5 involving the Chinese Coast Guard and a Philippine resupply mission for the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine Navy’s sentinel in Ayungin Shoal.

F ormer Defense Secretary Orlando “Orly” Mercado, under whose term the Navy deliberately ran aground the Sierra Madre at Ayungin amid China’s “creeping invasion” in the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone, said that although he is not privy to the rationale for President Marcos Jr.’s appointment, he knew Locsin as a “very talented” mediator.

K arla Cruz, fellow of AIF International-Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Locsin is a good choice for Marcos Jr. to engage China.

“ He’s good choice. I think he has the gravitas and the conviction to say what people don’t wanna say,” Cruz said.

T he fellow of the US-based think tank thinks Locsin, as former foreign affairs secretary under the Duterte administration, “can unite the narrative” that China has been listening to from different actors in the Philippine government.

Ang hirap kasi ang dami-daming opinyon, parang nagiging local issue. Parang nagiging local politics, eh [It’s hard when there are so many opinions and it starts sounding like a local issue. Like local politics], when in fact it’s a global geopolitical issue that affects so many people,” she added.

C ruz said Marcos Jr. should delineate the specific role of Locsin, vis-a-vis the role of Philippine Ambassador to Beijing Jaime FlorCruz.

P rof. Jay Batongbacal, maritime expert, believes Locsin has already established rapport with the Chinese Foreign Ministry officials when he was still the Philippine foreign minister.

B atongbacal doesn’t think that