ILOILO City – Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin will be in the city today to grace this year’s Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national convention.
First time to be conducted in Iloilo City, the convention will gather an estimated 3,000 lawyers from across the country.
The event – which will revolve on “upholding the rule of law in periods of great change” – will be held at the Iloilo Convention Center in Mandurriao district.
Bersamin – the second Chief Justice to have been appointed to the position after the ouster of Ma. Lourdes Sereno in May 2018 – will give a keynote speech.
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio will also be in the convention.
He will give a lecture on the West Philippine Sea issue, following the recent filing of a communication at the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging crimes against humanity against Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario filed the complaint against Xi, requesting the ICC to “check impunity” over China’s activities in the disputed territory.
Carpio-Morales and del Rosario lodged the complaint before the withdrawal of the Philippines from the ICC took effect last March 17.
“This is a test for the international law-based order in the relationship of nations,” said IBP president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo.
Expected to square off on the same issue in the convention are former congressman Neri Colmenares, law dean Jose Manuel Diokno, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, and former presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Also in the roster of speakers are justices Mariano del Castillo and Marvic Leonen of the Supreme Court and Presiding Justice Romeo Barza of the Court of Appeals./PN
