简体中文
By APD writer Melo M. Acuna
**MANILA, Oct.21 (APD) -- **Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary-designate Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. said during the elections at the United Nations in New York that the Philippines was re-elected to the Human Rights Council.
“There was a dawning realization that a state’s responsibility to protect first and foremost, covers the law-abiding against the lawless,” Mr. Locsin said during the First Plenary Session of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels last Friday.
In a statement released by the Department of Foreign Affairs Sunday, Mr. Locsin said the defense of law-abiding citizens against the violence of lawless elements, specially organized crime and terrorism “is the defining role of a state.”
He added “failure of the state’s responsibility to protect the law-abiding against the lawless is at the root of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.” He explained inclusive growth, human rights and sustainable development are not “mutually exclusive.”
Secretary-designate Locsin said the 17 Sustainable Development Goals form an important part of the Philippine development plans which he described as genuinely universal and practical statement of universal needs and ambitions compatible with equal peace, progress, safety and security of all nations and their respective citizens.
He underscored the need to reduce extreme poverty which he described as “a drag on progress” as it frustrates the moral imperative of universal action.
“The Philippines is committed to developing timely, comprehensive and disaggregated data to better grasp the situation of every citizen, specially the most marginalized,” he further said.
He explained the Philippines is in the circle of fire and in the path of typhoons of increasing ferocity due to climate change. Disaster-risk reduction is entrenched in the Philippine government’s programs.
“Nature’s fury cannot be avoided but its worst can be managed,” Secretary Locsin said. The newly-appointed foreign secretary said half of the Philippine population is young, between 15 to 30 and continues to experience the so-called “demographic sweet spot. He said the young people’s vast store of potential energy and innovation will not be realized without right policies and programs.
Secretary-designate Locsin said the Philippines will actively participate in the formal adoption of the Global Compact on Migration “not a charter of rights nor a scale of imposed obligations as it is “a universal commitment to decency toward the stranger at the fates and the foreigner come to settle in our midst.”
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
