President Roberto de Ocampo, President of the Asian Institute of Management;
Former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Federico Macaranas;
Her Excellency Annika Markovic, Ambassador of Sweden to the Philippines,
Dr. Zahidul A. Huque, Acting UN Resident Coordinator,
Ms. Beth Day-Romulo,
Colleagues in the International Relations field,
Excellencies in the Diplomatic Corps;
Ladies and gentlemen:

It is my honor and privilege to represent the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Honorable Alberto Romulo, who would have wanted to join us today but as you know he is in Laos for the 38th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.

Today is a most auspicious occasion for we celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of one of the world’s truly great architects of world peace: the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

For both Swedes and Filipinos, indeed for the world community, the name Dag Hammarskjöld evokes an ideal image of the United Nations.  His stint as Secretary-General in the formative years of the UN, his sincere and principled leadership, and his remarkable achievements in the key areas of peacekeeping and peace-building, are still a model and inspiration to us all.

To commemorate his remarkable life, the Department of Foreign Affairs is proud to join hands with the Embassy of Sweden, the United Nations Country Team in the Philippines, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Asian Institute of Management in sponsoring a series of fora, exhibits and other events in the coming days.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been asked to talk a little about the Philippine experience in and vision for the UN.

Almost sixty years have passed since representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the U.N. Conference on International Organization to draw up the United Nations Charter.

The Philippines is honored to be one of those 50 countries that met in San Francisco that eventually signed the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 establishing the United Nations. Much have changed since 1945, international concerns have metamorphosed into complex issues that confront today’s 191-member United Nations such as terrorism, sustainable development, climate change, transnational crimes and migration, among others.

I am proud to say that the Philippines has been actively involved in confronting these issues and in seeking solutions along with fellow UN Member-States and the UN system.

Our commitment to multilateralism was reaffirmed by the UN membership when the Philippines was elected to the Security Council in 2003. During our tenure in the Security Council, the Philippines has endeavored to be a voice of reason and moderation, without compromising our core values and commitment to world peace and security.

During our Security Council Presidency last June 2004, we are proud to have passed the landmark resolution restoring sovereignty to Iraq.  We had also organized a historic debate on “Role of Civil Society in Post-Conflict Peace Building” in United Nations Security Council.

The Philippines is the only member of the Security Council to hold two committee chairmanships and three committee vice chairmanships. It chairs the Resolution 1566 committee that seeks to impose sanctions on individuals and entities involved in terrorist activities and the sanctions committee overseeing the arms embargo against Somalia.

The Philippines is also vice chairman of three other subsidiary bodies of the Security Council – the 1540 committee that seeks to prevent terrorists from acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction and the sanctions committee on Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We are also a pro-active participant in the various UN initiatives against terrorism and transnational crime, particularly in the areas of money laundering, human trafficking, arms smuggling, intellectual property, piracy and the illicit drug trade.

In the sphere of disarmament, the Philippines was recently elected as the Chairman of the Hague Code of Conduct on Ballistic Missiles and as Vice President of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Philippines will be President again of the Council this coming September.  We intend to hold a Summit Meeting of the UNSC, to re-invigorate the role of the Council as the focal point for the advancement of global peace and security.

I believe Mr. Hammarskjöld would look favorably upon our record of participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations.  We currently have troops and policemen deployed with the UN “Blue Helmets” in Liberia, Haiti, Kosovo, East Timor, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, Afghanistan and Sudan.

We are proud to have launched the “Interfaith Dialogue” process in the United Nations, which seeks to bring together the world’s religions and faiths to contribute to the realization of peace and development.  Secretary Romulo chaired the first Tripartite Inter-Faith Conference last month in New York City.

We are studying with great interest the landmark proposals for UN Reform as manifested by the UN Secretary General’s Report “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All” and the High Level Panel Report on Threats, Challenges and Change.  We look forward to a frank exchange of views on the issues raised and to making real progress in UN Reform.

The UN Millennium Development Goals are an integral part of our nation’s Medium Term Development Plan.  The Philippines is looking forward to discussing our experiences thus far with goal implementation during the forthcoming MDG Summit in September.

Environment and Developmental issues are of great concern to the Philippines, particularly sustainable development and climate change.  We are glad to note that the Dag Hammarskold Foundation is active in international action against climate change.
 
Socio-Humanitarian issues such as Gender & Development, Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Migrant Workers’ Rights, Civil Society Participation, etc., and concerns brought about by the advent of Globalization and the World Trade Organization, are also priority areas of our participation in the UN.

Like his Filipino contemporary and fellow UN statesman, the late General Carlos P. Romulo, Dag Hammarskjöld was also a man of letters, a poet.  Let me conclude my remarks with a quotation from his many inspiring writings:

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.