Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Early life

Locsin was born in Manila on November 13, 1948. His father was the prominent newspaperman and publisher Teodoro Locsin Sr. He studied in Ateneo de Manila University and got his Bachelor's degree

Supreme Court nominations

When Senior Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing retired from the Supreme Court in 2009, Locsin was among the candidates nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council as a potential replacement. However, he was not appointed to the said post. In 2012, he was nominated as chief justice to replace Renato Corona but the post eventually went to then-Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Relationships

He is married to Ma. Lourdes Barcelon, who ran for Congress at the First District of Makati for the Liberal Party, but lost to outgoing Councilor Monique Yasmin Lagdameo of PDP-Laban. She ran for such post as her husband is ineligible to seek reelection after three consecutive terms of service.

He was formerly married to Philippine Stocks Exchange officer Vivian Yuchengco. They have two daughters, Margarita and Bianca.

Social media presence

He is described as "one of the most amusing online presences on Twitter", which is a rather amusing way to twist facts.

Career history

Controversy

Locsin has found himself at the center of various controversial public statements via the social media platform Twitter.

Filipino Language

In late March 2016, he was chastised by internet users over his comments on Twitter regarding the Tagalog language as he called it "a language inappropriate to pointed debate" during the Visayas leg of PiliPinas Debates 2016. He later defended his prior comments concerning the use of Tagalog in debates.

Hitler and the Nazis

On August 25, 2016, he wrote:

You may find this hard to believe but the Nazis were not all wrong, give or take killing millions of the wrong people. Keep an open mind.

When asked to clarify this remark, Locsin added that there were:

Some things [Hitler] did right.

Locsin later retracted these remarks by deleting the tweet, however threatened individuals who criticised him.

On Philippine Senator Leila de Lima

Locsin has had choice words about Senator de Lima, to wit:

Ah, shut the f*** up, you fat b****. GMA had a TRO from the Supreme Court and you spat on it.

On rape

Locsin’s thoughts on rape are articulated in this tweet:

Remember how we threw out pro-Noynoy trolls from our timeliness by threatening to rape their mothers with backhoes? That worked.

On 20 February 2017, the majority bloc members of the House of Representatives caucused to remove rape from the list of possible death penalty offenses. When the official Twitter account of the ABS-CBN News Channel reported this, Locsin tweeted a reply:

"Fair. Why not only on a case to case basis for heinous crimes as SC determines, which anyway can strike down every death sentence."

A Twitter user then asked Locsin, "Are you saying that rape is not a heinous crime?" Locsin replied:

"Not is [sic] not a heinous crime. It is a crime, an indignity, an outrage but not a heinous crime. What's wrong w [sic] you?"

He went on to defend his argument with examples:

"Rape when an ugly man in power beds a young girl who is poor, that's heinous or his face is."

"Gang rape like in India where they raped girl then raped her with led [sic] pipes until they tore her up—heinous."

"Want more? Killing is not heinous, not even premeditated. It is a common crime."

In a series of tweets, another Twitter user criticized Locsin:

"These 'heinous crimes' you think of are much of a grander scale. It is an insult to women everywhere that you consider rape as a minor detail, a passing thought without even thinking how damaging it is both physically and psychologically. Your misogynstic [sic] and outdated mentality is one of the reasons why this so-called "developing country" remains to be in the 3rd World. It is deeply saddening and unfortunate. Lest you forget, Mr. @teddyboylocsin. Death is a much merciful deed. To be able to live day-by-day with that constant reminder of pain, and trauma, well, I guess you will never know the amount of suffering one can go under that."

To which he replied:

"Oh yes I might, if I go to jail and get raped in the showers by big men but it would still not be heinous."

On Extrajudicial Killings

Locsin has been adamant in supporting President Rodrigo Duterte’s, war on drugs:

We cannot put at risk the imperative necessity of Duterte's SAVAGE WAR AGAINST DRUGS by letting these cops live. Kill them. NOW, SIR. NOW!