3 July 2004 - DFA Secretary Delia Domingo Albert joined other ASEAN officials in   the opening ceremony of the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC) today in Semarang, Indonesia. President Megawati Soekarnoputri inaugurated the Center, which will help to strengthen regional capacity to fight terrorism. The establishment of the JCLEC was an important follow-up of  the Bali Ministerial Meeting on Counter-Terrorism held last February 2004, co-chaired by the Foreign Ministers of Australia and Indonesia and attended by Secretary Albert.

The main objective of the Center is to build operational law enforcement capacity needed to fight transnational crimes, with a key focus on terrorism. Aside from serving as a training ground for Indonesian law enforcement personnel, it is expected that national agencies in the Asia Pacific region would make use of the resources that will be provided by the Center for operational support. The Center intends to draw upon regional and global law enforcement resources and experiences to encourage international cooperation to combat transnational crimes. Australia is the main international sponsor of the Center.

The Secretary’s attendance at the inauguration reaffirmed the Philippines’ commitment to work together within ASEAN to enhance cooperation, share information and regional capacities to combat terrorism. In her remarks at the Bali Ministerial Meeting on Counter-Terrorism in February this year, she expressed the hope that the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime could establish linkages with the Indonesian Center, specifically on activities that would impact at the local level-that is, even villages.

The opening of the JCLEC coincided with the Meeting by 24 Ministers at the 11th ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta on 02 July. The ARF plays a key role as a useful venue for multilateral dialogue and consultations on a wide range of political and security issues including the fight against international terrorism and other transnational crimes.

Secretary Albert led the Philippine delegation to the ARF Meeting. END.