(Eagle News)—-The Palace on Thursday, Aug. 9, welcomed the selection of Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet as the next United Nations human rights chief.
“I think the (s)election of this new High Commissioner for Human Rights must be a result of compromise and we’re optimistic that we will have better relations with the new High Commissioner for Human Rights,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte had engaged in a word war with Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, whom Bachelet will replace once she is approved by the UN’s member-states.
This was after Zeid criticized Duterte’s drug war, claiming killings of drug suspects had been sanctioned by the Philippine government.
Duterte vehemently denied this.
Zeid again slammed Duterte after the Department of Justice included in its petition to declare as terrorists a UN special rapporteur, saying he should undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Duterte fired back, noting Zeid’s country, Jordan, was not a democracy in the first place.
A Manila court has since then ruled the UN special rapporteur was a “non-party” to the case.