Phl backs international efforts vs biological weapons

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is one with the United Nations and other nations in supporting multilateral efforts to foil biological weapons, fully aware that use of such instruments of massive destruction that harm humans remains a global threat.

In a statement, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said that the administration of President Aquino “is committed to initiatives by foreign governments and international organizations to fight the proliferation of biological weapons and make the world safer.”

“It is no comfort that man’s capacity for invention was for good and for bad. And while we have inventions that enhance health, vigor and longevity, there are an equal number of inventions that have greater and varied capacities to inflict harm or bring death to humans and all living things,” he said.

Ochoa made the statement at the Biological Weapons Convention Conference Week for East Asia and the Pacific held in Makati City Monday night. He heads the Cabinet cluster on security, justice and peace.

“Shall we surrender our optimism to the proliferation of biological pathogens of destruction? We definitely are not giving up. We are fighting for the very survival of humankind itself,” he stressed.

But he said the UN support and the increasing number of organizations and group of experts that will monitor, regulate and control biological weapons will bring assurance that the situation will be turned around.

The Philippines is hosting a regional workshop for countries from East Asia and the Pacific until July 1 in preparation for the upcoming Biological Weapons Convention 7th Review Conference and the Biosecurity and Biosafety cooperation scheduled late this year.

Representatives from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, the United States, Canada, the European Union, Norway and the UN, as well as members of academe and scientific institutions, are participating in the conference.

Ochoa said the conference augurs well for the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), which he also chairs, as it pursues protective, control and defensive initiatives concerning chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and forms of warfare.

Part of ATC’s mandate is to enforce the Biological Weapons Convention, an international agreement signed by the Philippines along with other countries banning the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons for purposes of aggression.