Germany summons PH envoy over Locsin’s defense of Duterte’s Hitler remarks

MANILA, Philippines – The Federal Foreign Office of Germany has summoned a Philippine acting ambassador over comments made by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., defending President Rodrigo Duterte’s earlier remarks comparing himself to Adolf Hitler.

This was reported by German journalist Arnd Henze, of Berlin-based ARD Hauptstadtstudio, in a Twitter post Friday, even noting that Locsin’s remarks were “unacceptable.”

“UPDATE: Philippine’s acting Ambassador has been summoned by Germany´s Foreign Ministry,” Henze wrote.

“It has been made very clear that the remarks by @teddyboylocsin (Locsin) were totally unacceptable,” he added.

UPDATE: Philippine´s acting Ambassador has been summoned by Germany´s Foreign Ministry. It has been made very clear that the remarks by @teddyboylocsin were totally unacceptable. https://t.co/KiRZxDgrIm

— Arnd Henze (@arndhenze) February 21, 2019

Asked on Twitter for his comment, Locsin responded: “Rich, coming from one of those who did not just comment on it but perpetrated it.”

Rich, coming from one of those who did not just comment on it but perpetrated it. https://t.co/yiwTZ20O6h

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) February 22, 2019

Duterte earlier compared his administration’s drug war to Hitler and the Holocaust, even saying he’d be “happy to slaughter” three million addicts.

“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews … there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” Duterte said in a speech back in September 2016.

READ: Duterte ‘happy to slaughter’ drug suspects; cites Hitler

A clip of an interview with Locsin posted on the ARD Hauptstadtstudio’s website showed the DFA chief affirming Duterte’s remarks on Hitler and the Holocaust.

“It’s how he express himself, remember, his policy, according to the surveys, has inspired a greater confidence, why would we give up on that?” Locsin said in the interview.

“I said the same thing. I myself said the same thing before he even said it,” he added.

https://blog.ard-hauptstadtstudio.de/philippinischer-aussenminister-bekraeftigt-hitler-vergleich/

Henze also posted screen-grabs of Locsin’s earlier tweets, noting that it was not Locsin’s first time to issue “extremely offensive comments” related to the Holocaust.

“In our interview, Philippine’s Foreign Minister embraced remarks of President Duterte about Hitler and slaughtering 3 million drug addicts,” Henze wrote.

“It‘s not the first time he made extremely offensive comments with reference to the Shoa,” he added.

In our interview, Philippine‘s Foreign Minister embraced remarks of President #Duterte about Hitler and slaughtering 3 Million drug addicts. It‘s not the first time he made extremly offensive comments with reference to the Shoa. pic.twitter.com/IU5EFsoyu8

— Arnd Henze (@arndhenze) February 19, 2019

/kga