Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo on Tuesday apologised for taking a smiling photo with a group of politicians at the Holocaust Memorial in Germany for which he had come under fire on social media.

Robredo and lawmakers from the opposition Liberal Party took the photo recently during a visit to Berlin.

“I would like to apologise for whatever offence to the sensitivities of the people it caused, while there was no malice in it, still, I take full responsibility,’’ Robredo told newsmen.

The photo showed Robredo and the Liberal Party lawmakers smiling and sitting on concrete slabs at the site, which social media users described as “disrespectful” to the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Others expressed support for Robredo, saying that other people who had taken similar photos were not chastised for it.

Liberal Party president Senator Francis Pangilinan said the photo was a non-issue.

“Taking of photos and sitting on the stone slabs is not prohibited.

“In fact, the website of the memorial is filled with photos of visitors seated on these stone structures,’’ he said.

Report says the memorial covers a 19,000-square-metre site in Berlin, where 2,711 concrete slabs of different heights were placed in 2015 as a form of remembrance for the millions of Jews killed under the Nazis. (Dpa/NAN)

– Apr. 17, 2018 @ 11:33 GMT