United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein
Crude and inappropriate.
That was how Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque described United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein’s remark that President Rodrigo Duterte should have himself undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Roque, however, said that Duterte’s statement to have United Nations envoys be fed to crocodiles was an appropriate response to al Hussein’s inappropriate remark.
“Well, because the UN officials should, as a matter of course, respect sitting heads of state, because after all the UN is composed of an international organization and is composed of sovereign state. And the sovereign states of course are represented by their respective leaders,” Roque said in a press briefing on Monday.
“No, there’s a world of difference between a UN official using crude language against a sitting head of state and the President using any kind of language that he wants on a private individual,” he said.
“Especially in this instance, when the person using the crude language is himself without a democratic mandate,” he added.
When asked about his reaction about the Philippine government’s actions against UN envoys, al Hussein said that Duterte “needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation.”
In response, Duterte on Saturday said that he would feed UN probers to crocodiles.
“Ganito ‘yan eh. P***** i**** g*** na ito. ‘Yung si… ‘yung chief nila. Kaya sinabi ko na, ‘Umalis kayo dito.’ You know, sabi ko sa — Lahat kayo. Nagalit sila kasi ang advice is, ‘Do not answer questions from them.’ And that is for a reason, legal,” he said in a speech before soldiers in Zamboanga City.
(It’s like this. That [expletive], their chief. That’s why I said, Go away from here. You know, I told all of them. They got angry because the advice was not to answer questions from them. And that is for a reason, legal.)
“That is provided for in the Constitution itself. Our Constitution. Kaya sinabi ko, ‘Iiwan mo na lang sa akin. Eh magpuntahan dito ‘yung mga g***.’ May mga buwaya ba dito? ‘Yung kumakain talaga ng tao. Doon mo itapon ang mga p*****… b***** ‘to,” he added.
(That’s why I said leave it to me. Let the [expletive] come here. Are there crocodiles here? The ones that eat people. Throw the [expletive] to the crocodiles.)
This remark, Roque said during the press briefing, is just the appropriate response to al Hussein’s statement.
“It’s an appropriate response to a remark that as I said, should not have been made a sitting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” he said.
He, however, said that the President is not in the position to feed the envoys to crocodiles.
“I don’t think he is in a position to do it. Come on. They are not even being allowed in to investigate; there would be no occasion to push them to the crocodiles,” he said. /je
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