Marcos skips Ukraine Peace Summit; Galvez to represent Phl

Malacañang said on Tuesday that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would not personally attend the peace summit on Ukraine in Switzerland next week, despite an earlier statement from his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, indicating otherwise.

Instead, Marcos has assigned Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. to represent the Philippines at the upcoming conference from 15 to 16 June.

"Marcos has designated Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito G. Galvez Jr. as the representative of the Philippines to the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland,” Malacañang told Palace reporters in a Viber message without providing further details.

The government agency also clarified after Zelensky visited Manila on 3 June to personally invite Marcos to the summit and claimed that the Philippine president confirmed his attendance.

"(Marcos) said he will come and he will participate in the summit,” Zelensky said in a television interview.

Switzerland said on Monday that 90 states and organizations have registered for the peace summit on Ukraine.

The summit will outline provisions of the Ukrainian government's peace plan, which aims to end the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022, a conflict that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Although Malacañang also confirmed last 3 June that the Philippines would participate in the summit, it took another week for them to announce whether or not Marcos would be traveling to Switzerland for the event.

Among those confirmed to attend are French President Emmanuel Macron, US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.