‘Something seriously wrong with Teodoro Locsin’

(Editor’s Note: This is the continuation of the article of Mr. Rigoberto ‘Bobi’ Tiglao that originally appeared in the May 5, 2021 issue of the Manila Times. The first part was reprinted by Pinoy Exposé in our last edition, Issue No. 18. The article is reprinted with the author’s kind permission).

I WOULD say there is something seriously wrong with this person (Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin—Ed).

Based on the information on Twitter, Locsin sent out an amazing 272,500 tweets since he joined it in April 2011. That means an average of 75 tweets per day. This is an average, which means it is likely when he was over-excited that he could have sent 100 tweets or more per day.

Locsin beats the most infamous but retired tweeter Donald Trump, who sent out 57,000 tweets since he joined it in May 2009 to January 9, 2021 when Twitter.com shut it down.

That’s just 18 tweets per day. US statistics say average tweets per month by an American is 4.4.

What kind of person would send 75 tweets a day? Studies show that it takes at least 2 minutes to mull over a topic, write it down, reduce it to within the 280-character limit for tweets, and finally to post it.

The arithmetic says Locsin is spending 2.5 hours every day in his tweeting addiction.

And we taxpayers are paying Locsin to tweet on such things as what he thinks of the Gates couple’s divorce, that he’s glad this TV series is continuing, boasting how witty he is, or insulting an ally?

Especially after Trump’s obsessive tweeting, there has been a plethora of psychological studies on the profile of excessive users of Twitter and other social media.

While social media has become not just a tool of democracy but of social cohesion and communication, there is a dark side to it, when people spend an inordinate time on it. Among the psychologists’ findings:

Twitter is addictive, which explains why Foreign Affairs department sources claim that even during very important meetings, Locsin is often tapping like mad at his cellphone, making his staff having to repeat what they say.

Twitter inflates one’s ego, because of the feeling that one’s views are being read by thousands of people, even hundreds of thousands of “followers,” in Locsin’s case, a mammoth 678,200 followers.

For a septuagenarian approaching retirement like Locsin, with his well-known huge ego since his Cory days everyday losing air, that ego-boost would be ecstatic.

Twitter forces the user to dumb down his views or give only a one-sided view of issues because of the 280-character limit.

No wonder, Locsin horrifically simplifies the complex South China Sea dispute, to propagate the lie that China just wants to grab all of the islands there.

The nastier a tweet, the more viral it becomes, with feedback provided, since Twitter displays the number of people who “liked” it and “retweeted” it. This prods the tweeter to tweet more nasty things.

Locsin’s vulgar post on China for instance had 4,800 retweets and 9,600 likes. No doubt he was jumping up and down for joy over that.

Wrong business

Locsin is in the wrong business. For a person to have posted 272,500 tweets or 75 tweets daily — on his own, without a staff doing it, as celebrities do — means he has the immense ego and temperament celebrities seeking fame usually have.

Indeed, Locsin’s 272,500 tweets easily beats Coco Martin’s 90,800. Vice Ganda’s 23,700, Angel Locsin’s 12,000, Alden Richards’ 9,500 tweets, Maine Mendoza’s tiny 4,129, or even those of that social media creation Justin Bieber who has posted only 31,300 tweets.

Duterte must give Locsin the job he enjoys doing and he is most useful in. He is as suited to the foreign secretary’s job as Manny Pacquiao would be as education secretary.

Locsin has an amazing 678,000 followers of his Twitter account, more than the combined followers of PTV 4 (165,700 followers), PNA (26,000 followers), presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr., (52,000), and Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar (19, 000).

Locsin’s account would be a huge machinery to deliver the President’s messages to the country. Andanar and Roque would make great foreign affairs secretaries, with the former having the traits of a tactful and intelligent, behind-the-scenes diplomat while the latter has studied in detail the South China Sea disputes.

Give Locsin a fancy title his ego needs like “Social Media Czar.”

Just tell him to shut his mouth on the South China Seas disputes as he has no idea what it is about, and for him to promise never ever to use expletives against any country.

Duterte must also whisper to Locsin so he’ll grab the job: “Teddyboy, you’ll be as powerful as Donald.”