‘Flimsy, untrue’: Harry Roque rebuts UP Diliman ExeCom’s comment on Int’l Law Commission bid

By Prince Golez

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Wednesday called the UP Diliman Executive Committee’s (ExeCom) objection to his campaign for a seat at the International Law Commission (ILC) “flimsy” and “untrue.”

UP Diliman ExeCom said Tuesday they oppose Roque’s nomination to the United Nations body as they cited his ““poor track record of promoting, defending and fulfilling human rights and the rule of law, especially during the administration of President Duterte.”

While he respects the opinion of his former alma mater and employer, Roque enumerated what he has done to protect human rights for more than three decades.

“I have represented journalists, most notably the families of 19 victims of the Ampatuan massacre in domestic courts and before international monitoring bodies with the case of Adonis garnering the view that criminal libel is inconsistent with the ICCPR,” the Palace official said.

“I was counsel to the Panatag Shoal fishermen, the comfort women of WWII and the families of Darius Evangelista and Jennifer Laude, among others. In all these cases, I battled powerful interests in order to ensure that proper remedies were availed of, the rule of law was upheld and justice was served,” he added.

Roque also cited the passage of the Universal Health Care Law, the Free Irrigation Service Act for small-scale farmers, a national lunch feeding program for students, and the HIV Policy Law as among his accomplishments.

“All of these laws which I co-authored and whose passage I passionately lobbied for, grant our countrymen much needed economic rights whose fruits we are now reaping during this pandemic,” according to him.

The secretary likewise reminded his critics that the ILC is not a political body but an expert group of people who have the necessary credentials and experience in public international law needed to codify customary international law and develop the same.

“Despite the UP Executive Committee best efforts in belittling my track record in human rights and ignoring altogether my credentials in field of public international law, which is what is relevant to the mandate of the International Law Commission, I wish to assure my former colleagues in UP that my commitment to human rights and the rule of law has not wavered,” he concluded.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)