Pimentel urges UN rights official to quit over remark vs Duterte

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. (File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Senate President Aqulino “Koko” Aquilino III has called for the resignation of a United Nations (UN) human rights official who had made a scathing remark against President Rodrigo Duterte.

“He should resign his post for lacking the steely nerves, the self control, and the extreme patience required of international bureaucrats,” Pimentel said in a text message sent Sunday night. “If he wants to be a politician instead then he should run and be a politician in his home country and not meddle in the internal affairs of PH.”

The Senate leader was referring to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein who had earlier suggested that Duterte should go to “some sort of psychiatric evaluation” after the latter’s recent attacks against UN human rights activists.

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Pimentel reminded UN officials that they are international bureaucrats, not politicians, and that they must show “extreme patience and respect their member nations.”

“These UN officials receive salaries which come from the contributions of member-states like PH,” Pimentel said. “They cannot use their position and also the UN organization to personally attack the head of a member state.”

A UN official resorting to personal insults on a head of state of a member-nation was a “big no-no,” Pimentel said in an interview at the Senate on Monday.

“Maybe he has lost the patience required of an international bureaucrat or diplomat, the nerves, the objectivity. So siya na magsabi. Mag-resign na siya kung time na,” the Senate leader added. /atm