Counterterrorism, trade top AIPO meet agenda in Cebu

Delegates to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) that will open tomorrow in Cebu City will focus on counter-terrorism and improving trade in Southeast Asia.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., AIPO president, will open the 27th General Assembly of the organization, which will be attended by at least 300 parliamentarians from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Delegates have started arriving in Cebu City since yesterday.

Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the House foreign relations committee and AIPO organizing committee head, said the event’s top agenda includes political, economic, social and women’s issues which the assembly will discuss from Sept. 10-15.

Terrorism falls under political matters, which will be integrated in the De Venecia-proposed Interfaith Council, which he said will unite all religions and will be a people-centered approach to counter-terrorism.

Other items include the regional cooperation to combat cyber terrorism, regional maritime security and anti-piracy cooperation and an extradition treaty covering Asean members.

AIPO members include lawmakers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, and Laos. Observers from New Zealand and China will also be arriving.

"We are making sure that the substantive discussions of the Assembly will be successful, and the delegates will cherish their Cebu experience," said Cebu Rep. Raul del Mar, who is also House deputy speaker for the Visayas.

The delegates will also discuss energy security among ASEAN members, increased trade and investments throughout the region, accelerating the initiative for ASEAN integration, the debt-for-equity initiative and promotion of regional centers for growth.

Social matters includes the proposal for disaster management and emergency response, legal cooperation to combat trafficking in women and children, cooperation in fighting pandemic and infectious diseases like avian flu and HIV/AIDS, environment protection, the one-billion trees initiative, and migration.

Also in the agenda are the enhancement of women’s role in values-oriented education, the role of women parliamentarians in achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, and the role of women political leaders in a globalized era.

The assembly is expected to issue a joint communique on Thursday, Cuenco said.

The AIPO’s committee on organizational matters will also tackle the report on the proposal to transform the AIPO into the Asean Parliamentary Council that will make it a more effective and closely integrated institution.

De Venecia, who is currently in Seoul for the 4th meeting of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) of which he is chairman of the standing committee, has been an advocate of some of the major issues in the assembly.

Among de Venecia’s proposals are the interfaith dialogues to mediate ethnic conflicts, the adoption of a mechanism for a quick response to natural disasters such as tsunami and earthquakes, and the adoption of the debt-for-equity proposal to ease the foreign debt burden of nations to allow them to reduce poverty by 2015 and begin to achieve the millennium development goals.

The Philippine delegation is made up of senior members of the House of Representatives, namely: Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar, Reps. Roque Ablan, Robert Ace Barbers, Edgar Chatto, Simeon Kintanar, Ramon Durano VI, Clavel Martinez, Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, Antonio Yapha, Herminio Teves, Eduardo Zialcita, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Luis Villafuerte, Emmylou Talino-Santos, Iggy Arroyo, Mat Defensor, Vincent Garcia, Janette Garin, Eduardo Gullas, Josefina Joson, Milagros Magsaysay, Oscar Malapitan, Reylina Nicolas, Joey Salceda, Lorna Silverio and Akbayan party-list Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales. — Delon Porcala