Philippines, 2006

It gives me great

pleasure, Madam, to extend to you the felicitations of

my Government and our people, and my own

congratulations, on your well-deserved election to the

presidency of the General Assembly. My delegation

stands ready to extend to you its fullest cooperation,

not only as a member of your Bureau, but as a close

friend of Bahrain as well. Your predecessor, Mr. Jan

Eliasson, has left an indelible impression on the United

Nations. Under his leadership, we were able to carry

out a substantial part of the package of reforms

mandated by the largest gathering of world leaders, as

set out in the 2005 World Summit Outcome

(resolution 60/1).

Last year, our leaders met to commemorate 60

years of the United Nations. That meeting gave all of

us renewed hopes for peace, growth, progress and the

pre-eminence of the rights of all peoples. Those hopes

remain, even in the face of continuing threats to the

peace and security of mankind posed by terrorism and

the proliferation of nuclear weapons; even in the face

of grinding poverty and financial uncertainty; even in

the face of intolerance and misunderstanding; and,

certainly, in the face of the fast-changing nature of our

world.

Those hopes remain because the spirit of

cooperation and community, which lies at the very

heart of our Charter, lives on. Cooperation remains the

key to reaching the goals set by our Charter.

Cooperation, according to a twentieth-century

philosopher, is the only thing that will redeem

mankind.

It is in that spirit that the Philippines welcomes

and supports the continued work of the Middle East

Quartet and its call this week for greater progress

towards a just and comprehensive peace. We strongly

support the Road Map to peace and maintain our hopes

for the realization of the vision of two democratic

States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace

and security.

Together with the other members of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), we

were gravely concerned over the deteriorating situation

and the escalation of violence in the Middle East,

particularly the disproportionate, indiscriminate and

excessive use of force in Lebanon. The United Nations

peacekeeping operation now under way in Lebanon

renews our hope for peace and offers a great

opportunity for the United Nations to demonstrate its

relevance and its impact on the world stage.

Our own quest for peace in the Philippines is

boldly moving forward, thanks to the support and

cooperation of key members of the Organization of the

Islamic Conference and other members of the

international community.

Our own experience as a country is convincing

proof of the efficacy of collective action in fighting

terrorism. Working closely with our neighbours and

others, we are ridding our country of terrorists. The

recent adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-

Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288) will help to

strike another blow against terrorists. I commend the

Permanent Representatives of Spain and Singapore for

having successfully steered the negotiations on the

Strategy.

One of the anchors of the Strategy is an initiative

that is a primary concern of my country: the promotion

of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. In pursuit of

that initiative, the Philippines organized and chaired

two key meetings held yesterday here at the United

Nations: the First Ministerial Meeting on Interfaith

Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and the High-level

Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace. As

founder and current Chair of the Tripartite Forum on

Interfaith Cooperation for Peace — a new movement of

Governments, United Nations agencies and religious

non-governmental organizations accredited to the

United Nations — the Philippines will initiate the

holding of another high-level tripartite conference, this

time to focus on the issue of small arms and light

weapons.

In addition, the Philippines announced last week,

at the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, that we

will organize and convene a special ministerial meeting

on interfaith dialogue and cooperation for peace in the

city of Davao, in southern Philippines. Meanwhile, I

commend Spain and Turkey for their new initiative on

the Alliance of Civilizations. I believe that it will

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complement and reinforce, in a mutually inclusive

manner, the Philippine initiative on interfaith dialogue

and cooperation for peace.

We have barely nine years left to achieve the

Millennium Development Goal (MDG), set by our

leaders, of cutting poverty in half by 2015. That target

could remain a mere vision if no effective mechanism

for resource mobilization is found. It is in that context

that the Philippine initiative on debt for equity in MDG

projects was launched last year; I thank the Group of

77 and China for its support. This initiative does not

call for debt cancellation, a debt moratorium or debt

reduction; it merely calls for the use of part of the

payments from the debt stock of low- and medium-

income developing countries not eligible under the

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative as

equity for creditors in MDG projects in areas such as

infrastructure, education, employment and health.

Multilateral cooperation in the field of energy

security continues to grow in importance. Alternative

sources of energy have to be developed. My delegation

recommends that the Secretary-General appoint a

group of eminent persons to look into this matter. The

output of such a group should be the subject of a high-

level dialogue before the current session ends.

One of the historic achievements of the sixtieth

session of the General Assembly was the decision to

establish the Central Emergency Response Fund for the

rapid deployment of relief and assistance to countries

stricken by natural disasters. The Philippines ranks

third globally in terms of the number of people

exposed to earthquakes and tropical cyclones annually.

For that reason, the Philippines calls on all nations to

support the Fund. We also call for enhanced

cooperation aimed at effective responses to natural

disasters.

International migration and development was the

subject of last week’s High-level Dialogue. That is an

issue that is close to our hearts. Approximately one

tenth of the population of the Philippines lives

overseas. We are the largest supplier of seafarers, and

our land-based workers can be found in practically all

parts of the world.

Bearing that in mind, the Philippines joined the

call for the creation of an informal global forum on

migration and development as an outcome of the High-

level Dialogue, provisionally outside the umbrella of

the United Nations, to enable the international

community to continue the dialogue on important

issues relating to migration. My delegation invites

Member States to accede to the International

Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All

Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in

order to demonstrate and reaffirm the universality of

human rights.

For my country and its people, human rights and

the sanctity of the life of the individual are of

paramount value. For my Government, the protection

of human life is a sacred commitment. Last week, the

Philippines renewed that commitment through the

signing of the Second Optional Protocol to the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Enshrined in our constitution is powerful

language against the death penalty. Three months ago,

President Arroyo gave that constitutional mandate

further expression when she signed into law Republic

Act 9346, which removed the death penalty from our

statute books.

Such is the value that we assign to life that, in our

constitution, we are bound to protect the life of the

unborn child. Through the signing of the Second

Optional Protocol, the Philippine Government re-

emphasized its unrelenting commitment to

strengthening the protection of human rights.

I should like to take this opportunity to express

the profound appreciation of the Philippines and of

ASEAN to the outgoing Secretary-General, Kofi

Annan, for his dedicated and tireless service to the

United Nations. He leaves behind a more invigorated

and dynamic Organization, a legacy of reform with

new and needed institutions such as the Human Rights

Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, and an

eloquent recommitment on the part of the United

Nations and its membership to alleviating the plight of

the less fortunate through the articulation of the

Millennium Development Goals.

The Philippines is particularly appreciative of

Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s support and

cooperation during our recent term as a Security

Council member during the biennium 2004-2005 and

for his steadfast support for the Philippines interfaith

dialogue initiative.

Two world wars ago, Mr. Woodrow Wilson, an

advocate of a global organization, defined power in

terms that are still relevant today. He said: “Power

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consists in one’s capacity to link his will with the

purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of

cooperation”. The drafters of our Charter and the

challenges of the present provide us with the reason.

We must now find within ourselves, as nations and as

peoples, the gift of cooperation.