Press Release No.193-03
24 April 2003
WE
MUST STRENGTHEN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND TREATIES IN OUR FIGHT
AGAINST HUMAN SMUGGLING - OPLE
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople is to push for greater international
cooperation and the strengthening of existing legal regimes in fighting
trafficking in persons, when he heads the Philippine Delegation to the 2nd
Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons,
and Related Transnational Crime on 28-30 April 2003 in Bali, Indonesia.
“One of the first steps that states should take is to become a party to
the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children,” Secretary Ople said. He added that
we need more states to become parties, as we have not yet reached the required
number of State Parties for this Protocol to enter into force. The Philippines
has signed and ratified this Protocol.
The Bali Conference is a follow-up to a similar meeting held in February
2002. Last year’s conference resulted in the so-called Bali Process
that sought to provide countries in the Asia Pacific an opportunity to enhance
and strengthen cooperation in the fight against people smuggling, trafficking
in persons and related transnational crimes in the region. The forthcoming
2nd Ministerial Conference aims to bring the process forward, in recognition
of the need to consolidate and expand this cooperation.
Secretary Ople said that he hopes “the Conference will increase the capacity
of the countries in the region, to respond, collectively and individually,
to the threats posed by transnational criminal activities.”
Secretary Ople will also push for cooperation among the countries attending
the Bali meet on information exchange on fraudulent documents, fake passports,
routes of human trafficking and the modus operandi of human smugglers and
traffickers.
“More importantly, I will ask for regional and international cooperation
in providing mutual legal assistance, humane treatment and speedy repatriation
of victims of human smuggling. I will also urge for speedy extradition
of perpetrators of these dastardly crimes,” Ople said.
Secretary Ople will proceed to Manado in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province,
from Bali for a three-day visit on 1 May 2003.During the visit, Secretary
Ople will meet with local officials of North Sulawesi to discuss Philippines-Indonesia
bilateral relations, particularly on economic and security cooperation between
the Province of North Sulawesi and Mindanao. His meeting with the
members of the Manado Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KADIN) will be
an opportunity for the Secretary to present before the business community
the economic opportunities that the Philippines, especially Mindanao, can
offer to North Sulawesi.
Secretary Ople is also scheduled to meet with the Filipino community in
Manado.