Germany summons Philippines charge d’affaires over Locsin’s reported Hitler remark

February 22, 2019

Germany protested remarks by Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to a German television network where he reportedly backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s previous statement about slaughtering three million drug addicts like what Nazi leader Adolf Hitler did to Jews during World War II.

Germany’s ARD correspondent Arnd Henze, in his Twitter account, said Philippine Embassy in Berlin’s Charge d’Affaires Lilibeth Pono was summoned by the German Foreign Ministry over Locsin’s “totally unacceptable” comments.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday said the news report is ''biased and misleading.''

In a statement, the DFA said: "The Department views as unfortunate the biased representation by Mr. Arnd Henze of ARD Capital Studio Berlin of his interview with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. at the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the new building of the Philippine Embassy in Berlin."

"The video posted by Mr. Henze on his blog is incomplete and misleading," it said, adding "it failed to show Mr. Henze's deliberate attempts to provoke Secretary Locsin into giving controversial remarks."

“In our interview, Philippines’ Foreign Minister embraced remarks of President Duterte about Hitler and slaughtering 3 million drug addicts,” Henze tweeted.

Henze also posted in the same tweet previous statements made by Locsin on Twitter.

In her meeting with the German foreign office, Pono, according to DFA diplomats, said Duterte has since apologized for the remarks he made in 2016 and that the Philippines and Israel have maintained good relations. Duterte went to Israel for a state visit in September 2018. DMS