'P445M na gastos dyan!' PH will be saving money if we pull out our membership from UN - Sotto

Senate President Vicente Sotto III photo from Manila Bulletin (ctto)

Manila, Philippines – Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III told reporters on Monday, that the government may have saved money if the Philippines will pull out its membership from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or better yet to the United Nations as well.

According to Sotto, this move can save our country some $8.2 million or P445 Million in mandatory contribution if we have decided to pull out from the international organization.

“It is up to the DFA, last year we paid $8.2 million mandatory contributions. We will be saving the country P445 million a year when we detached ourselves from the U.N.,” Sotto said.

But the Senate President will leave the decision to Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin, whether the Philippines should leave the UN or not.

Secretary Locsin insinuated in his previous Twitter post, that the Philippines may follow the United States, when they withdrew its membership from UNHRC in 2018. And since they adopted a resolution filed by Iceland to conduct an investigation on human rights abuses due to drug war campaign.

“No embassy in Iceland. Nor does Iceland have an embassy here. Iceland took the place of the US after it withdrew from the Human Rights Council. I think we need to follow America more,” Locsin said in a Twitter post over the weekend.

“I will not be surprised if Secretary Locsin will follow soon. That’s precisely what the United States did, they have dismembered themselves from UNHRC. The reason they gave it’s a hypocritical and self-serving group. It’s making a mockery of human rights,” Sotto added.

The Senate President said the UNHRC is being “illogical” to adopt the resolution considering that 18 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 14 voted “no” and 15 abstained from voting.  

Those who abstained from voting should be considered as against the resolution.

“What happened was, 18 voted in favor, 14 no, 15 abstained. Abstention is a no and any parliament knows that. Another example is, if there is a vote of 50 and 1 agreed to approve and 49 abstained, is the resolution carried? Based on the rule that they have it is, so it’s illogical,” said Sotto.

Source: Politiko