Philippines, 2003

On behalf of the

Philippine delegation I would like to extend warmest

congratulations to the President and the members of the

Bureau on his election to the leadership of the fifty-eighth

session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The past twelve months have been a most

difficult and challenging period for the United Nations.

A community of cynicism has formed regarding the

ability of the United Nations to rise above the morass

of disunity and disruptive competition among major

Powers to fulfil its catalytic role in promoting

international peace and security and development.

But, while it is undeniable that the United

Nations has struggled over the past twelve months, its

predicted decline is greatly exaggerated. Economic

linkages among nations have widened and deepened in

many sectors. The interconnectedness of the global

village continues to infringe upon traditional political

boundaries. For instance, the tentacles of international

terrorism have spread insidiously all over.

These and current developments have displayed that

without the centripetal pull provided by international

cooperation and partnership through the United Nations,

the world would tend to drift apart. The rich would

become richer and the poor poorer. Conflict and

disharmony would erupt along political, ethnic and

even religious fissures. We face the paradox of a world

contracting through advancing technology and, at the

same time, drifting apart along the seams of inequality.

Three years ago, 146 heads of State and

Government and 189 Member States blazed the trail to

the future by crafting the Millennium Declaration. In

the three years since the millennium started, in the

three years since the Millennium Summit, much has

been done, though much remains to be accomplished to

achieve the goals that the United Nations set for the

twenty-first century.

I am pleased to report that the vision of the

Millennium Summit and pursuit of the Millennium

Development Goals in my country have begun to bear

fruit, as they have been applied in our peace process

for the southern Philippines, in Mindanao.

The Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic

Liberation Front (MILF), the Muslim separatist group

in the southern Philippines, realize that the prescription

of the United Nations is the only correct and viable

one: that peace is an indispensable condition for

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economic development, just as development is an

essential component of peace. Nothing will do more to

lift the Philippines out of poverty than peace itself.

That is why we are negotiating peace with the MILF.

The Government of Malaysia has been a prime mover

in helping us negotiate peace, and I thank them.

To complement these efforts, the Philippines has

launched its bid for observer status in the Organization

of the Islamic Conference (OIC). I will be attending the

OIC conference next month in Malaysia and hope to

use that time to advance the peace process in Mindanao

and advance understanding among all faiths.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the United

Nations community for its support for the Philippines

as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for

the term 2004-2005, and to ask for your continued

support during the elections to the Council.

We wish to contribute our long experience in the

United Nations system, as an original founding

Member of the Organization. We have actively

participated in the Council's initiatives towards the

preservation of global peace and security throughout

the past six decades, both as a past non-permanent

member and as a contributor to United Nations

peacekeeping operations and other Council activities.

The Philippines has actively contributed military

and police personnel to United Nations peacekeeping

operations in Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Middle

East and Europe over the past half-century. We are now

preparing to contribute a contingent to join the latest

United Nations operation, the deployment to Liberia

next month.

Our guiding principles for our Council participation

include the following. The principle of collective

security established under the Charter should be

observed. The Security Council should maintain and

pursue a multilateral approach towards the performance

of its primary role of maintaining international peace

and security. Observance of the rule of law is of

paramount importance in the maintenance of

international peace and security.

I believe that there is a strong role for the United

Nations to play in Iraq and welcome and encourage

United Nations involvement to share the burden with

other nations, like the Philippines, that are already

participating in the reconstruction of Iraq.

It is heartening that we adopted an important

resolution on conflict prevention at the last session of

the General Assembly. As long as conflicts occur, there

is a need to strengthen our capacities for peacekeeping,

peacemaking, and peace-building.

International security, which in recent experience

is mostly threatened by imploding and failed States,

must be animated by the need to protect individuals

and communities from violence. It has also been amply

demonstrated that democracy is the condition most

conducive to a flourishing rule of law.

Erecting mechanisms and infrastructure for the

rule of law should be included as a key part of any exit

strategy of United Nations peace operations. It is our

view that the Security Council should provide the

leadership in moving the United Nations to a stronger

commitment to the rule of law in areas where the

United Nations is conducting peace operations.

Meanwhile, the challenges posed by the global

threat of terrorism are being effectively addressed

through growing international coordination and

cooperation, particularly in the exchange of

information, best practices and lessons learned.

We are actively assisting the work of the Security

Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee in fighting the

spectre of global terrorism, and we are in the process of

ratifying the important international conventions on

terrorism. At the same time, I am working with other

heads of State to ensure continued cooperation in our

battle to rid South-East Asia of the threat of terrorism.

What is required of us today is to link up once

more with the vision that our leaders charted at the

Millennium Summit and other recent international

conferences, and we should do this under the banner of

the United Nations.

The United Nations was created 58 years ago to

serve as the multilateral forum of the international

community to join hands in confronting challenges. It

is sobering to remember that no country, big or small,

rich or poor, can feel safe or think that it can remain

unaffected by violent conflicts, environmental

degradation and human suffering. The United Nations

must continue to adapt to changing conditions to fulfil

its envisioned role, and we support the call of the

Secretary-General for reforms in the structure of the

United Nations.

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The United Nations is a sui generis global

institution that can play a catalytic role to confront all

these challenges now and in the future. Therefore, it

behoves every Member of this Organization to make

the United Nations increasingly relevant and to invigorate

it to become a modern, nimble and determined agent for

change, which benefits mankind's condition.

We should instil the concept of strength and

greatness, not in terms of the ability to achieve or

maintain dominance over others, but in terms of the

ability of nations to work with others in the interest of

the international community as a whole.

We favour the strength of consensus in which the

future of world peace, security and prosperity lie.