No need for DFA response team in Sri Lanka, says Locsin

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said there was no need for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to send a response team to Sri Lanka amid an ongoing economic crisis there but stressed that the DFA is ready to respond to the needs of Filipinos abroad.

Locsin said this after Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said that the response team is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on June 2 to extend the government's response to close to 500 affected Filipinos in the embattled country.

In a tweet, Locsin apologized to Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Philippines Shobini Gunasekera for the DFA's response to the issue, saying the agency was just "too primed."

"Forget a DFA response team to Sri Lanka; there is no emergency there," he wrote in his tweet Friday, June 3.

"We are too primed to the point of trigger-happy at any report of OFs (overseas Filipinos) in any distress that we jump at any report even fake. My deepest apology to Madame Ambassador," he added.

According to Locsin, the DFA needs a "true report" on the situation in Sri Lanka as the agency is getting reports from "troublemakers."

"Need a true report. Not many Filipinos; most married to Sri Lankans. We're getting usual spin from troublemakers there; busybodies here who spinning like tops," he said.

In a televised press briefing on Monday, May 31, Arriola said the DFA would be going to Sri Lanka to assist OFs in need financially.

She added that they planned to provide 300 US dollars of cash assistance to every Filipino adult in Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Affairs Undersecretary said around 25 Filipinos have already expressed their intention to return to the Philippines, and they are expected to arrive in Manila "either this coming weekend or early next week."