Macalintal slams Locsin over 'boba' remark vs. Robredo

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on Tuesday slammed Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. for calling his client, Vice President Leni Robredo, "boba" or stupid after she questioned the cancellation of courtesy diplomatic passports of former Filipino diplomats.

In a statement, Macalintal said he never thought that Locsin would be "off-guard" in treating a lady, who also happens to be the Vice President.

"Calling her 'boba' or stupid just because she made a remark that ran counter to his official action does not fit well to the fine gentleman that was Teddy Locsin I previously admired," Macalintal said.

"While you think that VP Leni may not be as intelligent as you, but I can assure you, Teddy Boy, that she is a very honest and sincere public servant and a distinguished companyera."

Locsin's remarks against Robredo came after she commented that the cancellation of diplomatic passports of former government officials unjustly punished Filipinos and was tantamount to siding with China.

The cancellation was ordered after former DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario, who was carrying a diplomatic passport, was denied entry in Hong Kong. Del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales have sued Chinese President Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court.

"Hey, Boba. That is precisely why I have ordered the cancellation of all courtesy diplomatic passports because I refuse to single out Del Rosario," Locsin said on Twitter.

"Will someone please do her the kindness to give her a brain? Here I am trying to do what's right, which is to restrict diplomatic passports to real existing working diplomats so as not to devalue them abroad—and not pass them out as favors to retirees & friends," he added.

Macalintal, who ran for senator but lost in the recent midterm elections, said that even if Robredo erred in her remark, she still does not deserve the "unkind and so ungentleman-like attitude" from Locsin.

"But I am sure that the Teddy Boy Locsin I know would one day wake up and realize his greatest blunder of insulting the Vice President and would try to regain the gentleman image he suddenly lost by apologizing to VP Robredo who, I’m sure, was also surprised to hear such insulting remark from the Foreign Affairs Secretary," he said.

Locsin has already apologized over his comment against Robredo.

Macalintal is representing Robredo in the election case filed by former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, whom Robredo defeated in the May 2016 vice presidential race, before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. —KBK, GMA News