Candaba ex-mayor wants UN rights chief declared persona non grata
CANDABA - Former Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo on Monday urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to declare United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein as persona non grata in the Philippines.
Chris Navarro
Pelayo, together with Senior Citizen party-list Representative Milagros Magsaysay, led a multi-sectoral group in holding a protest in front of the DFA office in Pasay City to show support to President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a statement sent to Sun.Star Pampanga, Pelayo said that the demonstration is in response to Zeid’s recent alleged insulting remark on the need for psychiatric evaluation of President Rodrigo Duterte. Citing some of Duterte’s profanity-laced remarks against U.N. envoys, particularly to rapporteur Agnes Callamard, Zeid said “it makes one believe that the president of the Philippines needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation”.
Pelayo said Zeid’s statement is an insult to a democratically-elected head of a U.N. member-country as well as the sovereignty of the Philippines. “Si Duterte and ama ng bayan. Kapag ininsulto mo ang Presidente, ininsulto mo na rin ang Pilipinas (Duterte is the father of the country. If you insult the President, you are insulting the Philippines),” he said, while adding that Zeid must never be allowed to enter the Philippines. The group is also demanding an apology from Zeid to Duterte and for the Filipino people who elected the President, Pelayo added.