The acting Philippine ambassador to Germany has been summoned by the German foreign ministry after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. defended President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks on Adolf Hitler in an interview in that country.
In a tweet, Berlin-based ARD-Hauptstadtstudio journalist Arnd Henze said: “Philippine acting Ambassador has been summoned by Germany’s Foreign Ministry. It has been made very clear that the remarks by [Locsin] were totally unacceptable.”
Lilibeth Pono is currently serving as acting Philippine Chargé d’Affaires to Germany.
Locsin attended the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, last week where he also led the formal inauguration of the new chancery in Berlin on Monday, February 18.
During the interview with ARD, the Philippine top diplomat defended Duterte’s comparison of himself as the “cousin of Hitler.”
Last year, Duterte drew parallels between Hilter’s annihilation of 3 million Jews and his controversial campaign against illegal drugs.
“No. This is how he expresses himself. Remember his policy, according to surveys, inspire greater confidence. Why would he give up on that?” Locsin told the federal broadcasting network.
“I tell you, I said the same thing. I myself said the same thing before he even said it,” Locsin added.
President Duterte’s 2018 remark on Hitler trigged condemnation, with the German government calling it “unacceptable.” The German foreign ministry also summoned the Philippine ambassador then to explain the matter.
Henze also posted screenshots of Locsin’s remarks that “some of the things Hitler did were right.”
Locsin has been tweeting such remarks even before he was appointed Foreign Affairs chief in October 2018.
“I believe that the drug menace is so big it needs a final solution like the Nazis adopted. That I believe. No [rehabilitation],” Locsin said, in a tweet that went viral in August 2016.
On Thursday, Reporters Without Borders Germany board member Martin Kaul criticized Locsin for the Hitler remarks.
“This is why we care that no one will ever again use Hitler as a reference to his politics. Maybe you might want to use your stay here to learn from us what our generation has learned,” Kaul twitted Locsin.
In response, Locsin cited Hitler’s economic ministers “brilliant” deed, saying “we must give credit where it is due.”
Hitler’s leadership of Germany has resulted to the mass extermination of Jews in Europe during World War II.
Six million Jews were killed in the attempt to “purify” the German race by killing all non-Aryans.
