‘Suffer insults in silence’

Days ahead of the Lenten period, President Rodrigo Duterte has been holding back his rapid-fire mouth in lashing at a foreign leader who recently questioned his state of mind. Actually, it has nothing to do with the Lent but it is more President Duterte’s way of heeding appeals from his closest senior Cabinet advisers to hold back his counter-attacks against the Royal member of a Middle East country to which the Philippine government has ongoing negotiations with.

In particular, President Duterte has been itching to get back at United Nations High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein who had publicly ridiculed him as needing to undergo a psychiatric examination. The UN official was actually taking to task President Duterte on the case of Filipina UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz who was included in the list of 600 communist-leaning personalities.

Corpuz, working as special advisor to the UN indigenous rights since 2014, is among the left-leaning leaders identified by the Philippine government in its petition filed in a Manila court to formally declare them as members of foreign terrorists organization. Taking up the cudgels for Corpuz, Al-Hussein retaliated by saying President Duterte should have his head examined by psychiatrist.

“I’d like to insult that al-Hussein but I agreed not to (for now),” President Duterte told us during “meet the press” at Malacanang Palace last March 13. “I am prepared to insult him but Esperon, Calida and Medialdea appealed to me not to,” the President revealed.

The President specifically referred to his National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Solicitor General Jose Calida. The three Cabinet officials informed the Chief Executive that the Philippine government is negotiating with Jordan on the procurement of Cobra attack helicopters. And al-Hussein happens to be a brother of the King of Jordan.

The Cobra helicopters apparently will replace the Bell choppers originally being procured by the Philippine military but which the President scrapped after Canada imposed human rights-related conditionality.

President Duterte was just the latest international leader whom the UNCHR chief locked horns with. Al-Hussein earlier has a running feud with US President Donald Trump whom he first publicly criticized as “grossly irresponsible” during the US presidential campaign when the latter promised to ban Muslims from visiting or migrating to the US.

Both Presidents Duterte and Trump should find it welcome news after Al-Hussein announced he won’t seek re-election. He is set to step down as UNCHR this August when his four-year term ends.

“I will just suffer the insults in silence,” President Duterte conceded.

But President Duterte swears this still conforms with his publicly declared foreign policy not to accept any foreign loans nor international aids that impose upon to the Philippine government any conditionality.

President Duterte though is sticking to his guns – metaphorically speaking – in the war against illegal drugs despite continuing attacks on him here and abroad by local and international groups of human rights advocates as well as foreign governments like the European Union, Canada et.al.

President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs has left more than 4,000 persons dead which human rights advocates believe were encouraged by his fiery rhetoric “to kill” those involved in the drug menace has emboldened government authorities to commit extrajudicial killings (EJKs). While the Commander-in-chief vows to take full responsibility for the actions of policemen and soldiers involved in the anti-drugs war, Duterte administration officials insist these are not state-sanctioned killings.

Despite official statements to clarify President Duterte’s policy pronouncements, the International Criminal Court (ICC) started the ball rolling. ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that the body began their preliminary examination on the alleged EJKs in the Philippines related to government’s operations going after drug suspects.

It was the final straw, so to speak, that pushed President Duterte to withdraw the Philippines from the UN Rome Statute Treaty, effectively decoupling the country from the ICC membership. A former prosecutor, the President argued the Rome Statute Treaty that has criminal and penal provisions requires “constructive notice” to the accused as basic element of due process. And since it was not published in our country’s Official Gazette nor in any newspaper in the Philippines, the ICC will “never, never, never” have jurisdiction over his person for lacking that basic requirement of due process.

However, the ICC issued a statement on Tuesday where it indicated that it would not stop looking into the alleged EJK cases even if President Duterte decided to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute.

President Duterte came out swinging at al-Hussein in his extemporaneous speech before local officials later that day. Breaking from his self-imposed restraint, the foul-mouthed former Davao City Mayor ranted: “Just like the commission and the prince that head – I do not want to insult him because we have – well, ongoing negotiation,” the President admitted.

President Duterte obviously losing his patience again went on to twit that while al-Hussein is the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the latter cannot even be held responsible for his statements. “He is not even an accountable officer. He’s in a monarchical state. What do you think would be in his mind? This prince, they are people who are not elected and who are not familiar with the democratic rules,” he explained.

Reiterating no international pressure can stop him from his presidential mandate as a sovereign State, President Duterte maintains he would not renege from his campaign promise to save the Filipino nation from the scourge of illegal drugs for the sake of the youth and the future generation.

While apparently still controlling his self from making bad or harsh words against the Prince of Jordan, his promise “to suffer insults in silence” is not in the character of President Duterte.

“I will just suffer the insults in silence,” President Duterte conceded.