Filipino-Americans in New York and New Jersey, USA, protested at the cocktail reception for Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque in the upscale Manhattan eatery Aretsky’s Patroon at around 6 AM (Manila Time) today.
Members the BAYAN-USA Northeast, denounced what they call Roque’s “shamelessness” in trying to become a member of United Nation’s UN International Law Commission (ILC).
They recall that Roque once mocked the UN and its human rights arm as a “toothless tiger” in defending President Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged human rights violations.
Roque traveled to New York last month to seek a position at the UN’s ILC.
According to Mike Legaspi of BAYAN-USA Northeast, Roque is no longer a human rights lawyer but is himself a human rights violator.
“He is complicit in the grave human rights violations of the Duterte regime: from the extrajudicial killings of women, urban poor, trade unionists, church workers, indigenous leaders, environmentalists, and human rights defenders by Philippine state forces,” Legaspi said.