Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy” Locsin Jr. on Tuesday deleted photos of how his friends have supposedly been helping Filipinos amid the pandemic after earning criticisms.
The top diplomat on Monday shared photos of packed meals on Twitter which he said were efforts of his “sosyalista” friends.
“What my sosyalista friends have prepared and served the poor since the pandemic started,” Locsin tweeted then.
His post featured photos of rice meals with viands. Some of the packed meals contained big marshmallow pieces while others had pieces of huge cheese puffs.
Locsin shared the post as different community pantries popped up in several areas across the country to cater to Filipinos’ needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These were inspired by Ana Patricia Non’s Maginhawa community pantry initiative.
Some of Locsin’s friends’ photographed initiatives, however, did not amuse a few Filipinos who noticed the inclusion of non-nutritional snacks in the meals.
The criticisms eventually prompted the diplomat to delete the post but it was reshared on other platforms. The post eventually made it to local Reddit’s trending list.
“Marshmallow at cheese puff on rice? Lol,” a Reddit user commented.
“Pinag-experimentuhan ng recipe mga inaabutan ng foods,” another online user quipped.
“Sana ulam nalang no? Kahit ‘di na sosyal ang style. Sosyal nga ang style, ‘di naman masarap at healthy,” a different Reddit user pointed out.
“Parang hindi naman sosyal gawin ulam ang Chiz Curls,” another Filipino commented.
Marshmallows and cheese puffs are known snacks in the Philippines. However, some argued that they are not meant to fill one’s stomach or act as a substitute for a full meal.
There were others, however, who commended Locsin’s friends for helping Filipinos at a trying time.
“At least your friends did something,” a Reddit user said in response to the post.
“LMAO cheese puffs hahaha… A for effort pa din, thank you na lang,” another online user commented.
Giving out packed meals and relief goods are among the most common initiatives of Filipinos to help each other out during the pandemic.
Donors like Bea Alonzo give out meals to frontliners while others like Bela Padilla distribute packaged goods to pandemic-hit Filipinos.
