{"id":247520,"date":"2020-03-08T07:21:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247520"},"modified":"2020-03-08T07:21:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T11:21:21","slug":"palace-defends-locsins-choice-in-wipo-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/08\/palace-defends-locsins-choice-in-wipo-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace defends Locsin\u2019s choice in WIPO election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Foreign Affairs Secretary @teddyboylocsin led the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) celebrations of the 52nd anniversary of ASEAN on 5 August 2019 at the DFA. (Photo<\/a>: @DFAPHL\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday defended Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.\u2019s move to choose a Chinese candidate over a Singaporean bet during the recently-concluded election for Director-General position of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Locsin merely based his decision on the competence of the candidates vying for the WIPO post.<\/p>\n

\u201cSec. Teddy Boy Locsin (was) voting for a person or representative (who is) competent and should be given the job. (It has) nothing to do with whatever nationality,\u201d Panelo said in an interview with DZIQ.<\/p>\n

Panelo\u2019s statement came after Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishan took a jab at Locsin for choosing a Chinese bet instead of supporting an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) candidate from Singapore.<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s Intellectual Property chief executive Daren Tang won the WIPO election held in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Tang earned 55 votes against Chinese candidate Wang Binying who merely garnered 28 votes to steal the nomination for the WIPO Director General post whose six-year term will begin on October 1, 2020.<\/p>\n

Tang will replace Australian Francis Gurry though the former\u2019s victory will still have to be confirmed during the WIPO General Assembly in May.<\/p>\n

In a tweet on Thursday, Balakrishnan said Locsin should have expressed support to Tang.<\/p>\n

Locsin, responding to Balakrishnan\u2019s statement, said in his Twitter account that Singapore\u2019s victory was \u201cunder strong Western pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he voted in favor of Wang because \u201cfriend in need is friend indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said Locsin voted for Wang because he believed that the latter is deserving.<\/p>\n

Asked if President Rodrigo Duterte is aware of Locsin\u2019s preference, Panelo said: \u201cThe President does not have to know about anything that Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAng pakikialaman ni Presidente, \u2018yung mga importanteng bagay. \u2018Yung mga ganoong ordinaryong trabaho ng isang<\/em>\u00a0Cabinet member, he does not have to know (The President is only concerned about important things. But he does not have to know about the ordinary task of a Cabinet member),\u201d Panelo added.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday defended Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.\u2019s move to choose a Chinese candidate over a Singaporean …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":225866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247522,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247520\/revisions\/247522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}