MANILA, Philippines — “This is serious. It will — not could — affect us deeply.”
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. made this pronouncement on Sunday after Houthi rebels from Yemen attacked two major oil sites in Saudi Arabia.
READ: Drones spark fires at two Saudi Aramco oil facilities
“To put it bluntly, an oil shortage or steep rise in oil price will rock the Philippine boat & tip it over,” Locsin said in a tweet, quoting a report about the attack.
“So everybody shut the fuck up and focus. No more clowns. Declaring state of emergency won’t save our economy but kill it,” he added.
This is serious. It will—not could—affect us deeply; to put it bluntly, an oil shortage or steep rise in oil price will rock the Philippine boat & tip it over. So everybody shut the fuck up and focus. No more clowns. Declaring state of emergency won't save our economy but kill it https://t.co/yzMvNwxkoI
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) September 15, 2019
In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the Interior Ministry said the sites were “targeted by drones.”
According to a report from Agency France-Presse, “Huthi rebels have carried out a spate of cross-border missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi air bases and other facilities in what it says is retaliation for a Saudi-led air war on rebel-held areas of Yemen.”
READ: Drone attacks strike major Saudi Aramco facility, oilfield
/atm