Department of Foreign Affairs
2330 Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Philippines
P R E S S  R E L E A S E

09 November 2004 — The Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that two Foreign Service Officers of the DFA, Atty. Irene Susan B. Natividad and Mr. Nathaniel G. Imperial, successfully completed the first Asian Diplomats Fellowship Program of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre of Asian Studies.

The two-month program aims to bring diplomats and other government officials from regional foreign ministries or organizations to the Centre in order to undertake research on contemporary policy issues. The other participants in this year’s program include representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the ASEAN Secretariat.

All the fellows were required to prepare a paper on the topic “Non-Traditional Security: Regional Policy Perspectives”. The papers were presented at a one-day policy research workshop held on 05 November 2004 at the Centre. The audience at the policy workshop was composed of academics, consular corps representatives, Filcom members, and HK-based journalists.

The papers submitted by the RP fellows were on “ASEAN Security Cooperation” by Mr. Imperial and “Trafficking in Women as a Non-traditional Security Challenge: Philippine Cases and Responses” by Ms. Natividad. The papers will later be published as part of the Occasional Papers Series of the University of Hong Kong and disseminated to HKU’s partner universities in different regions. END