Philippines won’t pull out of UN Human Rights Council

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte might have hurled profanity laced tirades against the United Nations and threatened to pull out of the organization in the past but the Philippines will not follow the United States’ move to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, Malacañang said.

In a press briefing Thursday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said Malacañang respects the decision of the US.

“We’re not following suit if that’s the question. The president has no reaction on what the Americans have decided to do,” he said.

The Philippines is a member of the 47-member body.  

On Tuesday, the US announced it was leaving the rights body, with Ambassador Nikki Haley calling it “an organization that is not worthy of its name.”

Trump’s envoy to the UN also lambasted the council for “its chronic bias against Israel.”

Roque, moreover, said that the decision of President Donald Trump’s administration reflects Duterte’s own views.

“I guess the latest decision of the United States reflects a sentiment that the president himself has articulated and apparently we’re not alone in this perception that there is bias among human rights group,” the president’s mouthpiece said.

UN and its officials have often been on the receiving end of the acid-tongue Duterte’s ire for their criticisms of the country’s human rights situation, particularly the administration’s bloody war on drugs. — with reports from the Associated Press