Locsin was born in Manila on November 15, 1948. His father was the prominent newspaperman and publisher Teodoro Locsin Sr. who was hailed from the Locsin family of Molo, Iloilo's Negros Occidental branch. He studied in the Ateneo de Manila University and received a bachelor's degree in Law and Jurisprudence.
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.
United Nations
He was designated as the Philippines' Permanent Representative to the United Nations by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017. It was announced that he accepted the appointment on September 18, 2016. His term officially began when he presented his credentials to António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, on April 19, 2017. Under his leadership, the Philippines voted to abstain from the challenge against the legality of the Independent Expert on SOGI at a November 2016 session. Also, the Philippines was among 10 nations that voted against a UN resolution urging Myanmar to end its military campaign against Rohingya Muslims living in the Rakhine state in November 2017. Additionally, the country was one of only 35 nations to abstain on the UN vote to declare the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital null and void during an emergency December 2017 session of the UN General Assembly. In March 2018, Locsin submitted the country's letter of withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, after President Duterte expressed his intent to withdraw from the court. Locsin vacated the post of Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations on October 12, 2018 upon assuming the post of foreign affairs secretary.
Foreign Affairs Secretary
On October 11, 2018, Locsin announced that president Rodrigo Duterte offered him the post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, which was held by Alan Peter Cayetano. Cayetano will run in the 2019 elections for representative of Taguig city, effectively vacating the position. He was sworn in by President Duterte as foreign affairs secretary on October 17, 2018, and his appointment confirmed by the Commission on Appointments on November 28, 2018.
Personal life
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 Stock Exchange director Vivian Yuchengco. They have two daughters, Margarita and Bianca.
Social media presence
Locsin frequently uses social media as a platform to air his views. He is pro-death penalty, citing in Twitter that the President should order the mass murder of cops who hurt others. He is also against the usage of indigenous Filipino languages such as Tagalog in debates, rather, he prefers only foreign languages such as English. He has also been criticised for his controversial use of social media.
In late March 2016, he was chastised by internet users over his Twitter comments calling the Tagalog language "inappropriate to pointed debate" during the Visayas leg of PiliPinas Debates 2016. He later defended his comments concerning the use of Tagalog in debates.
Locsin expressed support for the Philippine Drug War on August 21, 2017, through Twitter, comparing the campaign against drugs of President Rodrigo Duterte to Adolf Hitler's Final Solution and said he does not believe in the rehabilitation of drug addicts. He followed this with another remark that the "Nazis were not all wrong" and said people should keep an open mind drawing criticism. He cited Hitler's military and economic policies that "are paying off even now in German primacy in Europe" but conceded that the Holocaust "wiped out his economic contribution." Locsin later retracted these remarks by deleting the tweet, however threatened individuals who criticized him.
Rape as a heinous crime
On February 20, 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: Locsin in a tweet said that while rape is a crime; an "indignity" and "outrage" it is not a heinous crime. Though he went on to mention select cases of rape as "heinous" such as a gang rape in India and an incident where the rapist is an ugly man. He then said that killing is not heinous or premeditated saying its a common crime. His posts were criticized by some users of Twitter.
On February 14, 2018, Locsin tweeted that criticizers of the Chinese names imposed by China on the Philippine Rise, which have been recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization, are 'childish and stupid', sparking a word war on the issue. Criticizers noted that Locsin is the current ambassador to the United Nations and should be one the first to defend the Philippines' sovereignty and sovereign rights. Locsin did not reply afterwards.
On July 27, 2020, a tweet by the Embassy of the United States to the Philippines regarding the donation of hygiene kits by Filipino expatriates from Sabah indicated that Sabah belongs to Malaysia. Locsin quoted the tweet and replied that "Sabah is not in Malaysia". In response, on July 29, the foreign minister of Malaysia, Hishammuddin Hussein, called Locsin's remarks irresponsible and damaging to bilateral ties, and summoned the Philippine ambassador to Malaysia, Charles Jose. In response, on July 30, Locsin also summoned the Malaysian ambassador to the Philippines, Norman Muhamad. The Philippines has a claim to portions of Sabah, the entirety of which is considered as Malaysian territory.
'''Support of gasoline as a disinfectant'''
On August 1, 2020, Locsin quoted a tweet by radio and television personality Mo Twister criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte's remarks about using gasoline as a disinfectant for face masks. Locsin asked the radio and television personality "...what if he's right? Seriously, bro." He added that he knew of people in small towns who used to kill head lice by dropping them into kerosene. According to a now-deleted statement released by the Integrated Chemists of the Philppines on Facebook, gasoline should not be used as a cleaning agent or disinfectant, and its vapors are harmful if inhaled.
