The visit of United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan to the Philippines next year will "debunk" claims that freedom of speech of Filipinos does not prevail here, a Palace official said on Tuesday.

"Rapporteurs and observers will, honest-to-goodness, come to realize the level of freedom that we have. By next year, we will see a UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of expression. I think that will also cover media, that would be a good chance to debunk what some people are claiming that the Philippines is a warzone," Undersecretary Severo Catura said during Daily Tribune's digital program Straight Talk.

Catura, Executive Director of the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, is confident that the visit of Khan — a Bangladeshi lawyer — will prove that the level of freedom in the country is high.

"Her visit would be a good opportunity to debunk claims that there is no freedom of expression in the Philippines, that media is being suppressed, it's like 'in your face man,'" he added.

Filipinos, he said, are "too free" and that they are already becoming "victims of our democracy."

Some use their freedom to "politicize" and "abuse" the rights of others, he lamented.

"I am not saying that democracy is bad, no. But there is a distinction between human rights violations and human rights abuses," the official stressed.

"For instance, you are given the human right to express but if you go beyond that, you abuse your rights. So that same person that we were referring to actually abuses human rights," he added.

Khan, who previously served as the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International, is set to visit Manila in the first quarter of 2023 to conduct an independent assessment of the current status of the freedom of speech in the Philippines.

The dates of her upcoming 10-day visit have yet to be disclosed.

Rule of law
Khan served as elected Director-General of the International Development Law Organization in Rome, an intergovernmental organization that works to advance the rule of law, and sustainable development in 2011.

As UN Special Rapporteur, she is mandated to produce constructive recommendations for the government on how to improve the freedom of speech situation in the country regarding human rights principles and standards.

Khan has reportedly condemned the decision of the Philippine Court of Appeals to uphold the cyber libel conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Filipino-American journalist.

Catura is optimistic that Khan will recognize that existing policies and programs in the country would manifest themselves as being "products of democracy."

Khan is expected to hold thematic cluster meetings with representatives from the Philippine executive, legislative and judicial branches, to further protect and defend Filipinos' freedom of expression.
She is also set to visit various cities and provinces around the country to hold dialogue with local government officials and communities.

Her observations and reports will be processed along the National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-Up which the PHRC Secretariat manages in conjunction with the UN Joint Program for Human Rights.

Article 3 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides that no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, expression or of the press.