Consulate welcomes Fil-Am community at General Assembly

THE Philippine Consulate General in New York hosted its 9th Filipino-American Community General Assembly on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center.

The General Assembly is an annual event where leaders of the FilipinoAmerican community organizations in the U.S. Northeast are invited to the Consulate for a report on the activities of the previous year and the calendar of activities

“My position has not changed. I have stated it often, even before I took office as president, that there are many questions about (ICC’s) jurisdiction and what we in the Philippines regard as an intrusion into our internal matters and a threat to our sovereignty,” the President said.

Marcos, a known Duterte ally, said he

DFA chief: China harassment a ‘daily situation’ for PH

by FRANCES MANGOSING, TINA G. SANTOS Inquirer.net

MANILA — Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo brought up the Philippines’ maritime tensions with China at a high-level security conference in Germany on Saturday, February 18 saying that China’s harassment of Filipino fishermen and the country’s coast guard was the “daily situation that we face.”

This was earlier confirmed by fishermen who appeared at a forum in Manila last week, as they recounted that on the day a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship aimed a military-grade laser at a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel, Chinese ships also drove them away from their traditional fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea.

Ukraine was the predominant discussion at the Munich Security Conference, with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

PH, US set to hold biggest Balikatan

Annual joint exercises to include maritime, territorial defense

by MICHAEL PUNONGBAYAN Philstar.com

MANILA — Filipino and American troops are set to hold their biggest joint military exercises in April under Balikatan 2023 amid China’s growing brazenness in asserting its claim over waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Philippine Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., in an interview with “The Chiefs” on would not allow “former imperialists,” such as the ICC, to control the Philippines, unless it could be proven that the international court has jurisdiction over the country.

“So, that is not something that we consider to be a legitimate judgment. So, until those questions of jurisdiction and the effects on the sovereignty of the Republic are sufficiently answered, we cannot cooperate with them,” he said.

Blanket of protection

Former Bayan Muna party-list representative Neri Colmenares on Saturday, Feb. 18 said that the “unequivocal defense” of Duterte by the House of Representatives only emphasized the need for an ICC investigation.

Colmenares, who serves as legal counsel for the victims, added that the resolution of former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo providing a “blanket protection” to Duterte “only points that there can be no fair, comprehensive, and objective inquiry into the thousands of deaths resulting from Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines.”

Arroyo has filed House Resolution 780 urging lawmakers to support Duterte.

“This reiterates that our government is unwilling and unable to investigate, and that the executive and legislative branches of government verily make justice inaccessible. In fact, it reminds us that there is no domestic investigation into acts and omissions of key officials, underway today, at all,” Colmenares added.

Colmenares noted that there is no trial or named accused before the ICC.

“The defense is suspiciously premature. The politicization of judicial processes, marked by an assiduous resistance to fact-finding, eerily harks back to Arroyo’s own time as a president when cases of extrajudicial killings, desaparecidos and torture also heavily occurred. In choosing to ignore grave rights violations and abuses — acts incompatible with our very humanity — politicians enable and empower violators and abusers. This is how impunity perpetuates,” he said.

According to Colmenares, the resolution of the lower chamber is a mere posturing and will not be a hindrance to the ICC investigation.

“The resolution carries a mishmash of arguments that seem to claim that ‘the end justifies the means.’ In the course of its work, the ICC could also well find value in interrogating the basis of this resolution,” Colmenares stressed.

In May 2021, the ICC prosecutor at that time, Fatou Bensouda, requested the court’s authorization to launch a preliminary investigation into the extrajudicial killings conducted during Duterte’s war on drugs.

Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can investigate and prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated in a 2020 report that at least 8,000 people were killed during the campaign on drugs implemented under Duterte.

In November 2021, the Philippine government requested the ICC to defer the investigation, saying that it had begun its own inquiry into the killings.

In June last year, the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested the resumption of the investigation, saying the Philippine government had not substantiated its request for deferral.

Last January 26, a pre-trial panel of the ICC authorized the prosecutor to resume its inquiry.

The Philippines withdrew its membership from the ICC in 2019 but the court ruled that the country remained under its jurisdiction.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on January 26 appealed to the ICC to let the Philippines carry out its own investigation and respect the country’s sovereignty and judicial systems.

The DOJ also told the ICC that the country has a “working” and “organized” justice system compared to some African nations that the international court had investigated.

Marcos expressed confidence in the Philippines’ police and judicial branch and that no external player is needed to resolve its issues.

“I do not see what (its) jurisdiction is. I feel that we have in our police and our judiciary a good system. We do not need assistance from any outside entity,” he said. g of the current year.

Consul General Senen T. Mangalile welcomed the participants who were physically present as well as those who joined virtually via Zoom. He spoke on the theme of the 9th annual General Assembly, “Strengthening Linkages Through Collaboration and Partnership”, and identified the efficient delivery of consular services and the conduct of activities that are more inclusive and representative of the diaspora’s identity as his priorities.

“We will continue to give you the quality of service that you deserve as well as a set of events that are inclusive and representative of our community,” Consul General Mangalile said.

The General Assembly also featured presentations by consular officers and representatives of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Tourism, and Social Security System. The presentations were met with enthusiasm and keen interest by more than 140 attendees, including an additional 20 online participants who viewed the activity via Zoom. g