Bersamin to meet UN Rapporteur Khan
EXECUTIVE Secretary Lucas Bersamin will meet with United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan in Malacañang on Thursday, February 1, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) confirmed Wednesday.
In a statement, the PTFoMS said that Bersamin and Khan are scheduled to hold a meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Bonifacio Hall in Malacañang.
Khan arrived in the Philippines last January 22 and will be in the country until February 2 to assess the current state of rights to freedom of opinion and expression.
The PTFoMs did not mention if the human rights situation in the Philippines, particularly the issue on the previous administration’s war on drugs, would be discussed during the meeting between Bersamin and Khan.
But the meeting comes amid reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators were able to gather information and evidence for a possible case of crime against humanity on former president Rodrigo Duterte and other personalities linked to the drug war of the previous administration.
Last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. insisted that the Philippine government “WILL NOT LIFT A fiNGER TO HELP any investigation” of the ICC.
“Let me say this for the 100th time. I do not recognize the jurisdiction of [the] ICC in the Philippines. I consider this as a threat to our sovereignty,” Marcos told reporters in a chance interview in Quezon City.
“Therefore, the Philippine GOVERNMENT WILL NOT LIFT A fiNGER to help any investigation that the ICC conducts,” he added.
The President said that while ICC officials “can come and visit the Philippines,” authorities would ensure that “they do not come into contact with any agency of government.”
Marcos reiterated that government agencies have been instructed not to answer if the ICC gets in touch with them.
“We do not recognize your jurisdiction; therefore, we will not assist in any way, shape, or form, in any investigation that the ICC is doing in the Philippines,” he added.
In January 2023, the ICC authorized the reopening of the inquiry after it was suspended in November 2021, and in July 2023, the ICC Appeals Chamber also denied the government’s petition against the resumption of the inquiry.
In November last year, Marcos said that returning to the fold of the international tribunal is “under study,” although he recognized problems on the jurisdiction issue.
The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019 during the Duterte administration after the tribunal began an investigation into his administration’s drug war.