Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said he knew business tycoon Dennis Uy is “smart” enough to put no interest in buying ABS-CBN as he knew the closed network is a “giant problem.”
“I told you. I know him; he’s smart. He’s quick to take advantage of opportunities but ABSCBN is not an opportunity: it is a giant problem,” Locsin tweeted about Uy.
“And that’s the problem with striking out everywhere and at everyone and anything, messing up the message,” he said.
Dennis Uy is a Chinese-Filipino businessman and diplomat who is a native of Davao City. He is the founder of Udenna Corporation and also President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign donor. Uy also runs oil firm Phoenix Petroleum and 2GO Group a Transport and Logistics.
Uy earlier denied rumors that his company would buy ABS-CBN after it was shut down in compliance with a cease-and-desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) pending congressional approval of its franchise renewal.
“I have high respect for what ABS-CBN has done and what it continues to do,” Uy said in Filipino. “I completely recognize what it represents for our fellow Filipinos.”
“We are hoping that their issues be resolved soonest,” he added.
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DFA Sec Teodoro Locsin Jr in favor of GCQ
The DFA secretary also said he is in favor of lifting the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to check whether the public has “learned hard enough to step out safely.”
“I am for GCG (general community quarantine). We’ve had enough ECQ to instill in the quarantined public the imperative health measures — distance, masks,” Locsin said over Twitter.
“Time to test if the public learned hard enough to step out safely — workers back to jobs, businesses back to business. Public must manfully take responsibility,” he added.
Locsin believes that any increase in the COVID-19 cases after the government lifts the quarantine restrictions for “for vital economic reasons” could be justifiably blamed on the failure of people [and] communities to continue observing the health practices of the quarantine which are meant to continue as the way of living for the foreseeable future.”
“Indeed and in fact the quarantine was the way to force us to adopt those health practices and become permanently accustomed to them to the point of habit: wearing masks, keeping physical distance, hygiene and others,” he said in another tweet.