General Debate
75 Session of the General Assembly
Week of 22 September 2020 (Tuesday), General Assembly Hall, New YorkthTheme:“The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective
commitment to multilateralism – confronting COVID-19 through effective
multilateral action.”
PHILIPPINE STATEMENTPRESIDENT RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE

Mr. President of the United Nations General Assembly;
Mr. Secretary-General;
Heads of state and government;
Excellencies:
I am honored to address you today on behalf of the Filipino people on the 75thanniversary of the United Nations.
The invisible enemy that is COVID-19 has brought about an unfamiliar global
landscape and unleashed a crisis without precedent. It is the biggest test the world
and the United Nations faced since World War II.
While the United Nations has brought relief and hope to so many countries andpeoples around the world, it now finds itself saddled by a virus that has taken many
lives and wrecked economies and social order.
We are at a crossroads. How we address COVID-19 will define our future.
For the Philippines, this means putting up all of the peoples of our united nations
at the core of this response.
We will need to ask hard and fundamental questions about the vision andmission that the United Nations conceptualized 75 years ago.
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We need to ask ourselves whether or not we have remained true and faithful to
the United Nations’ principles and ideals.
Mr. President, in the light of the realities of the present, the Philippines grieves
with all of the families all over the world who lost their loved ones to this horrible virus.
We extend our heartfelt condolences.
We salute all frontliners who put their lives on the line even in countries not theirown. So also do we honor and recognize the healthcare professionals who selflessly
answered the call to combat the COVID-19 pandemic despite its virulence andunknown characteristics.
While each nation has its own strategy in fighting the pandemic, what the world
needs are coordinated international plans and efforts to pursue a common purpose.
COVID-19 knows no border. It knows no nationality. It knows no race. It knows
no gender. It knows no age. It knows no creed.
The Philippines values the role that the United Nations plays in its fight against
the pandemic. As a middle-income country whose economic advances have been
derailed by the pandemic, we welcome the launch of the UN COVID Response andRecovery Fund.
Ensuring universal access to anti COVID-19 technologies and products ispivotal in the global pandemic recovery.
The world is in the race to find a safe and effective vaccine.
When the world finds that vaccine, access to it must not be denied nor withheld.
It should be made available to all, rich and poor nations alike, as a matter of policy.
The Philippines joins our partners in the ASEAN and the Non-Aligned
Movement in raising our collective voice: the COVID-19 vaccine must be considereda global public good. Let us be clear on this.
We call for a global health agenda with enough resources and policy space for
the World Health Organization.
We need a WHO that is quick to coordinate and quicker to respond. The
Philippines will do its part in the pooling of global resources. Our health workers areamong the best.

2Mr. President, just as we needed stability and confidence because of thepandemic, geopolitical tensions continue to rise.
Escalating tensions benefit no one. New flashpoints heighten fears and tend totear peoples apart.
When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled flat.
Given the size and military might of the contenders, we can only imagine andbe aghast at the terrible toll on human life and property that shall be inflicted if the“word war” deteriorates into a real war of nuclear weapons and missiles.
I therefore call on the stakeholders in the South China Sea, the Korean
Peninsula, the Middle East and Africa: if we cannot be friends as yet, then in God’s
name, let us not hate each other too much. I heard it once said, and I say it to myself
in complete agreement.
Mr. President: Filipino migrant workers have been devastated by the pandemic.
Many have lost not only their livelihood, but also their health and lives as well. Yet they
go on in the frontlines, healing, caring for others in the different parts of the world.
The Philippine Government has embarked on an unprecedented repatriation
program. More than 345,000 overseas Filipino workers needed to come home then.
We have brought back half and are bringing back the rest.
We thank the countries that have provided Filipino migrants with residence
permits, access to testing, treatment and related health services in this pandemic.
We brought back most of our seafarers who were stranded because of COVID19 restrictions. We pioneered with the IMO the Green Lane for safe changes ofseafaring crews.
In these times, we need stronger cooperation in promoting and protecting therights of migrants, regardless of their migrant status.
We must all adhere to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and RegularMigration. Unless states include all migrants in their response to this pandemic, “noone among us is safe, until everyone is safe”, as the Secretary-General has said.
With the poverty rate reduced at 16.6 percent; and a sustained economic
growth rate of 6.4 percent between 2010 and 2019, the Philippines was on track tobecoming an upper-middle income country by the end of 2020. But the pandemic has
placed our economy in recession.
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Despite this downward pressure on growth, the Philippines remains committed
to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mr. President: The same urgency needed to fight COVID-19 is needed toaddress the climate crisis. This is a global challenge that has worsened existing
inequalities and vulnerabilities from within and between nations.
Climate change has worsened the ravages of the pandemic.
Peoples in developing countries like the Philippines suffer the most. We cannot
afford to suffer more.
The Philippines joined the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. We call on
all parties, especially those who have not made good their commitment to fight climatechange, to honor the same.
We call on all parties to strengthen communities and peoples for preparedness
and resilience. We are talking about mankind and Earth, our one and only home.
Mr. President: The Philippines will continue to protect the human rights of its
people, especially from the scourge of illegal drugs, criminality, and terrorism.
A number of interest groups have weaponized human rights; some wellmeaning, others ill-intentioned.
They attempt to discredit the functioning institutions and mechanisms of ademocratic country and a popularly elected government which in its last two years, still
enjoy the same widespread approval and support.
These detractors pass themselves off as human rights advocates while preying
on the most vulnerable humans; even using children as soldiers or human shields inencounters. Even schools are not spared from their malevolence and anti-government
propaganda.
They hide their misdeeds under the blanket of human rights but the blood oozes
through.
To move forward, open dialogue and constructive engagement with the United
Nations is the key.
But these must be done in full respect of the principles of objectivity, noninterference, non-selectivity and genuine dialogue. These are the fundamental bases
for productive international cooperation on human rights.
4Mr. President: Terrorism looms large.
As I said at the Aqaba Process, the Philippines will do everything and partnerwith anyone who would sincerely desire to protect the innocent from terrorism in all its
manifestations.
The Marawi siege, where foreign terrorist fighters took part, taught us that aneffective legal framework is crucial. Our 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act shores up the legal
framework by focusing on both terrorism and the usual reckless response to it.
Its enactment was done pursuant to our commitment, and the strict adherence
to the relevant Security Council resolutions and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism
Strategy.
Most importantly, we remain committed to rebuild stricken communities andaddress the root causes of terrorism and violent extremism in my country.
We must remain mindful of our obligations and commitment to the Charter of
the United Nations and as amplified by the 1982 Manila Declaration on the PeacefulSettlement of International Disputes.
The Philippines affirms that commitment in the South China Sea in accordancewith UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award.
The Award is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyondthe reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.
We firmly reject attempts to undermine it.
We welcome the increasing number of states that have come in support of theaward and what it stands for — the triumph of reason over rashness, of law overdisorder, of amity over ambition. This – as it should - is the majesty of the law.
Mr. President: The global health crisis has further complicated the global
security environment. But no aspiration nor ambition can justify the use of weaponsthat destroy indiscriminately and completely.
There is no excuse for deaths that a nuclear war could cause nor the recklessuse of chemical and biological weapons that can cause mass destruction.
These weapons of death put us all at mortal risk, especially if they fall in thehands of terrorists without a shred of humanity in their souls.

5We call on all Member States to fully implement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, and the Chemical and the Biological Weapons Conventions.
I have asked the Philippine Senate to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition ofNuclear Weapons. Importantly, we were among those to sign it first.
Mr. President: The Philippines has a long history of opening its doors to therefugees – from the White Russians following the 1917 Revolution, the European Jews
in the Second World War, the Vietnamese in the late 1960s, and the Iranians displacedby the 1979 revolution, among others.
The Philippines continues to honor this humanitarian tradition in accordancewith our obligations under the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and the1967 Protocol.
But lest we forget: helping the most vulnerable – those displaced by conflict,persecution, and political instability – is a shared responsibility of all countries.
As I have said many times: The doors of the Philippines are open, as they havealways been, to everyone fleeing for safety, such as the Rohingyas.
In the face of a mounting refugee crisis worldwide, let us work together towards
ending the conflicts and conditions that force people to flee their homes.
Mr. President: As our societies become more diverse yet interdependent, social
cohesion issues come to the fore.
Mutual understanding always accompanied by mutual tolerance between thoseof different faiths and cultures is the only foundation of societies at peace with itself
and all others.
Finally, I express gratitude to the gallant peacekeepers, including our own, whoadvance the cause of peace in the most difficult situations.
From the Golan Heights in the Middle East to Liberia in West Africa, Filipino
peacekeepers put themselves in the frontlines between the vulnerable and those who
seek harm.
We are committed to increasing the Philippine footprint in UN peacekeeping
operations with increased participation of women.
Again Mr. President: To defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges,
we must work with seamless unity which demands complete mutual trust and theconviction that we will win or lose together.
6We cannot bring back the dead but we can spare the living; and we can build
back better, healthier, and more prosperous and just societies.
To this end, we rededicate ourselves to multilateralism. The UN remains
humanity’s essential Organization. But it is only as effective as we make it.
To make significant changes, we need to be bold. We need the same collective
courage that finally made the United Nations a reality 75 years ago.
We need to act on long-standing recommendations to improve the Security
Council’s composition and working methods; to strengthen the role of the General
Assembly; and to streamline the processes and the operations of the UN.
Indeed, to be ready for the new global normal, it cannot be business as usual
for the UN.
Let us empower UN – reform it - to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Let us strengthen it so it can fully deliver its mandate to maintain peace andsecurity, uphold justice and human rights, and promote freedom and social progressfor all.
After all, we are the United Nations. Thank you.

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