Ople hopeful RP can win Security Council seat in ’04

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople has expressed confidence Philippines will most likely succeed in its bid to win a seat in the 15-nation United Nations Security Council for the term 2004-2005.

"We are looking forward to this landmark event which will validate the rising stature of the Philippines in the international community under the leadership of President Arroyo," a Department of Foreign Affairs statement quoted him as saying.

This was Ople’s remarks before he left to Jakarta to attend the first Southwest Pacific dialogue which Indonesia had initiated. From Indonesia, he will proceed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to speak at the World Economic Forum.

Ople said he has already instructed Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco, the country’s permanent representative to the UN, "to invoke a tradition of the wider Asian Group to establish a consensus on its nominee" in November 2003.

The Asian Group endorsement, which is to be done a year before the elections, "will clinch the seat for the Philippines since this will mean that there will be no other candidate for the seat reserved for Asia in the UN Security Council."

The country’s bid for a seat in the UN-SC has been unanimously endorsed by the ASEAN. It is one of the 10 so-called "rotating seats" for the non-permanent members, unlike US, Britain, China, Russia and France which has veto powers.

During the recent 57th UN General Assembly in New York, Ople had been "holding bilateral meetings with over a dozen countries from Asia, Europe, North America and Africa" to gather support for the Philippines’ bid for a seat in the UN-SC. — Delon Porcalla