Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have the honor to speak on agenda item 151: Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of Financing Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs): Cross-cutting issues.  At the outset, let me thank the Secretary-General and the ACABQ for their respective reports. I would also like to express appreciation for the reports of the Board of Auditors (BoA) and the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

The Philippines aligns itself with the statement of Cuba on behalf of the G77 and China.

Mr. Chair, the Philippines has actively engaged in UN peacekeeping since 1963, deploying almost 15,000 Filipino peacekeepers to 21 peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and special political missions.

This year marks our 60th anniversary in contributing to peacekeeping operations and to the UN’s work on peace. We hope to continue this tradition. The Government of the Philippines is working towards enhancing its capabilities in support of future peacekeeping deployments.

With President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s guidance to revitalize the country’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations, we wish to emphasize the following:

1. The Philippines puts a high priority in ensuring the safety of peacekeepers, who are operating against the backdrop of complex political and security situations, sometimes with incidences of transnational crimes across regions continuing to threaten stability in certain host countries. We believe that UN peacekeeping missions should be accorded with adequate resources to address the peacekeepers’ needs and guarantee their safety and security.
2. We will continue to prioritize the strengthening of accountability and system-wide efforts to ensure zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse in support of victims’ rights and dignity.
3. On Contingent-Owned Equipment (COE), the Philippines reaffirms its support for the regular review and updating of the COE Manual on policies and procedures concerning the T/PCC’s reimbursement rates to sustain and upgrade the peacekeeping capabilities in various mission areas.  
4. On Women, Peace and Security agenda, we remain committed to increasing the meaningful participation of women in uniformed roles and we support the call to integrate gender perspectives on all aspects of peacekeeping across command levels.

The Philippines welcomes the contributions of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and the Department of Peace Operations towards advancing key areas of the agenda through the support provided to field operations in order to implement their respective mandates. We note the OIOS’ reports that some priorities of the agenda need to be better integrated into results and monitoring framework to measure progress and strengthen accountability. We would like to hear more about the Departments’ efforts then to enhance coordination, reporting lines, operating modalities and adequacy of resources for the effective implementation of this agenda in the organization.

Mr. Chair, the Philippines looks forward to having constructive discussions on the above issues in the hope of achieving an outcome this session.

I, thank you.