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ALFI commends stance of President GMA in speech given at the United Nations
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(September 18, 2005) Officers and members of the Alliance for the Family Foundation, led by its President Rosie Luistro, commended President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because of “her very brave and powerful speech” before the gathering of Leaders in the Inter-Faith dialogue at the United Nations on Sept. 13, 2005, as reported in Philippine media.
Read full Press Release by ALFI
Read Coverage by The Manila Times
(excerpt)...She [President GMA] noted that religions are the bedrock of cultures and civilization, which she said must be respected as people pursue development.
Mrs. Arroyo also raised the issue of reproductive health, noting the Philippine government has been criticized for not supporting artificial methods of birth control to address the growing population.
"We expect the United Nations to respect the deep Catholicism of the vast majority of the Filipino people. The funding given by the UN to our national government for reproductive health shall be dedicated to train married couples in natural family planning technology which the World Health Organization (WHO) has found effective compared to artificial contraceptives," she said.
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Opening Remarks of
Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
President of the Philippines
Informal Meeting of Leaders on Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace
United Nations, New York, 13 September 2005
Excellencies,
I thank you for accepting my invitation.
Your presence today demonstrates the importance we all give to the focus of our discussion today – the promotion of peace and development.
I wish to thank the Honorable Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UNESCO and the Honorable Dr.Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Let me also welcome the observer delegations present today.
Excellencies, religions are the bedrock of cultures and civilizations.
In this era of terrorism, we must especially pursue broader interfaith dialogues to promote solidarity. Terrorists wish to instigate a religious war. They camouflage their evil designs by invoking religious prejudice in the hope of heightening cultural conflict or a clash of civilizations. We must take this opportunity to forge religious understanding, ecumenism and solidarity.
In this scenario, religious leaders can speed up dialogue and reconciliation. We should invite them as partners in the peacemaking process. The role of interfaith dialogue in restoring peace in Southern Philippines is an experience we would like to share with the world. The Bishops-Ulama Forum, our own format to interfaith dialogue, has yielded improved and mutual understanding and reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.
The Philippine government has adopted interfaith dialogue as an official policy contained in the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan, our overall framework for governance.
Interfaith understanding is important not only for seeking peace but also seeking development. For instance, understanding the concept of Islamic banking makes it easier to fund economic endeavors in the Muslim areas of our country. In our country we are undertaking efforts to rehabilitate the Al Amanah Bank in Muslim Mindanao and invite Islamic bankers to invest in its rehabilitation.
Likewise, understanding the deep Catholicism of the vast majority of our people reduces the resistance to family planning as a tool for development.
Accordingly, in the matter affecting the reproductive health of our women, let me inform the United Nations that the funding given my country for reproductive health projects will be dedicated to train our married couples in the use of and the propagation of the Billings Ovulation Technology. We were informed that the World Health Organization has found this practice very effective – even compared to artificial contraceptives.
And following the findings by the Population Council of New York in the early eighties that artificial conception barely has an impact on the decline of birth rates at merely 2% while the improvement of economic condition of the family, urbanization and breastfeeding together significantly influence the decline of fertility rates by as much as 98%, we would also like the UN to direct its assistance towards the improvement of our family productivity as the best economic solution towards eradicating the economic problem of poverty.
Consequently therefore, we invite all countries offering assistance towards assisting our people and families to improve their productivity.
STATEMENT of H.E. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President of the Philippines
at the
HIGH-LEVEL PLENARY MEETING OF THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS AT ITS 60 TH SESSION
New York
15 September 2005
PHILIPPINE MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
556 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10036 • TEL. (212) 764-1300 • FAx (212) 840-8602
Mr. President:
The mantra of the United Nations on its 60th anniversary is the Millennium Development Goals. But these goals are in danger of unraveling. Why? Terrorism, the energy crisis, and the debt burden of developing countries.
On the debt burden, we applaud debt relief for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries. But there are also many middle income countries that are highly indebted and have large populations that survive on less than $1 a day.
In their case we propose a large-scale 50% conversion of debt for Millennium Development Goals financing programs. We are not asking for debt forgiveness or debt cancellation.
What we propose is that the debt service or principal amount should be converted into equities in new projects of at least equal value and with their own potential earnings.
I hope that this debt for MDG proposal will find its way into the Summit declaration and that the Paris Club, the G-8 governments, the IMF and the World Bank, the regional development banks, and the world's large commercial banks will approve this proposal. We offer this option amidst the energy crunch.
On the energy crisis, we propose that the United Nations take the lead in collective action to ease the effects of oil prices. For instance, collective development of alternative and indigenous energy sources. Example: converting cane sugar to ethanol or diesel oil from coconuts. Wind farms and rural solar energy projects. Collective oil rationing, energy conservation, regional stockpiling.
In addition, collective efforts to intensify oil-and-gas exploration, similar to the cooperative seismic operations that China, Vietnam and the Philippines started last August in areas of the South China Sea that they claim competitively.
We also call on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting. Countries to recycle petrodollars and extraordinary profits from the oil trade in the form of equity investments and long-term, low-interest loans to medium and poor oil-importing states. We feel justified in makin g this call, because our overseas Filipinos contribute tremendously to the economies of the petroleum exporting countries.
Our overseas Filipinos, 8 million of them, are the reason why we sponsored the inclusion of migration in the Outcome Document of this High Level Plenary Meeting as well as the holding of a High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development. We are determined to leverage an effective global consensus to protect their rights and welfare, including their protection against global terrorism.
On terrorism, the Philippines reaffirms its commitment to wage the fight against this terrible evil. As the Secretary-General said in Madrid last Match, terrorism is a threat to all states, to all people. Like many countries, the Philippines has been struck-by-the-pain-of-terror but we
have fought back with the vigilance of ordinary citizens, a strong bilateral and regional security network, the tools of interfaith dialogue, and our strategic alliance with the United States. Our peace process is perhaps the only one in the world that incorporates and anti-terrorism component. Our ceasefire agreement with the rebels in Southern Philippines includes the interdiction of terrorist cells.
On-the-fight against terrorism, interfaith dialogue has gained legitimacy as a serious alternative approach to conflict. Religions are the bedrock of cultures and civilizations. Religions must be respected as we pursue development. We expect the United Nations to respect the deep Catholicism of the vast majority of the Filipino people. The funding given by the United Nations to our national government for reproductive health shall be dedicated to train married couples in a natural family planning technology which the World Health Organization has found effective compared to artificial contraceptives. The Population Council of New York has found that artificial contraception contributes only 2% to the decline of birth rates while the combination of improving the economic condition of the family, urbanization and breastfeeding contributes 98%. Thus we ask the United Nations and donor countries to direct their assistance towards the improvement of family productivity and income.
Mr. President, the great expanse of our challenges—the deepening cut of poverty, the relentless surge of terrorism, the burgeoning debt problem, and the soaring price of oil—bid us to find courage in our solidarity. On this 60th jubilee, we reaffirm the role of the United Nations as the primary instrument of that solidarity. Thank you.
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