(Eagle News)–The Philippines will remain in the United Nations Human Rights Council and will not sever ties with any country.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. made the statement after the body narrowly approved a resolution by Iceland that sought for an international probe into the human rights situation in the Philippines.
Eighteen of the UNHR’s 47 members expressed support for the proposal, while 14 countries, including the Philippines, voted against it.
The remaining 15 UNHRC members abstained.
“UNHRC vote is a small and harmless matter; we;re staying in UNHRC as a pedagogical duty to teach Europeans moral manners,” Locsin said in a Tweet.
He said the Philippines will stay in the body “out of duty to teach those whose awful history cries out for moral instruction how to avoid the hypocrisy that is the tribute vice pays to the virtue they so sorely lacked.”
To those calling for the Philippines to cut ties with Iceland, Locsin had this to say: “If we did, where’s the conversation? How do you insult those who insulted us if you cut them off?”
He noted he has urged the country’s top national defense and security officials to “continue sales talks even with those who voted for/co-sponsored the Iceland resolution.”
“As I said, we need to buy their weapons as they need to sell them to us because we must defend our national territory,” Locsin said.
