Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 26) — The Philippines has secured the support of some nations in the country’s campaign for a seat at the United Nations Security Council for 2027 to 2028, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
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“So we have already a number, but many countries have not yet made a formal decision, but we already have a count of those who have already formally committed in writing to support our candidature either unilaterally or through some kind of a mutual arrangement,” DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo said.
“We are beginning to campaign because the earlier we start the better,” he added.
Sen. Loren Legarda, who led the committee hearing, vowed full support for the Philippines’ bid to secure the seat.
The election for the council seat for the 2027-2028 period will be in 2026. A country needs the votes of two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly to clinch a seat.
In July, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reaffirmed its support for the Philippines’ candidacy for the non-permanent seat.
Kyrgyzstan has already announced its candidature, Manalo said.
But for the Philippine UPR Watch, a delegation of human rights defenders and advocates engaged in the Universal Periodic Review process of the UN Human Rights Council, the Philippines is “unworthy” of membership in the UN Security Council.
It said the country “simply lacks credibility” because “it is in violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.”
“How can the Philippines take on the task of international peace and safety when it is much of an epic fail on the domestic front?” said National Union of People’s Lawyers’ Kristina Conti, who is part of the Philippine UPR Watch.
Conti also raised that “the refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a direct challenge to international authority.”
“The so-called ‘war on drugs’ and the ‘war on terror’ have been bloody, intense, and continuous,” she said. “We have a long list of police abuses, military brutality, and government misuse of power.”
On ASEAN chairmanship
Meanwhile, Manalo said it would need “two years, at least” to prepare the Philippines for the chairmanship of the ASEAN in 2026.
READ: PH to assume chairmanship of ASEAN in 2026
“Kasi [because] as chairman, we will have to not only worry about logistics but we have to start preparing, you know, our themes, the issues that we will focus on,” he said.
The DFA chief told Legarda that the country will have to host senior officials meetings and ministerial meetings, as well as the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in 2026.
