Manila slams UN rights chief

MANILA: Philippine foreign minister Alan Peter Cayetano hit back on Saturday at a UN official for "irresponsible and disrespectful" comments about President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday.
Duterte's attacks against UN human rights activists suggest he needs to see a psychiatrist, UN high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said.
Zeid's comments came after the Philippine justice ministry filed a petition in a Manila court seeking the declaration of more than 600 alleged communist guerillas as "terrorists".
It included Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, who was listed as a senior member of a Maoist rebel group.
Cayetano said the Philippines was bothered by "the manner in which a ranking UN human rights official can overstep his mandate".
Zeid said Duterte's attacks against UN special rapporteurs cannot go unanswered and the UN Human Rights Council must take a position.
He said the Philippine leader "needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric examination".
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said: "The Philippines takes grave exception to the irresponsible and disrespectful comments of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that cast untoward aspersions regarding the President of the Republic of the Philippines."
Duterte has also repeatedly insulted the current UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, because of her criticism of his bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
The Philippines welcomed a UN investigation into Duterte's signature war on drugs but objected to Callamard leading it, saying she was biased and not qualified. – Reuters