Distinguished Co-Facilitators,

The Philippines commends both of you for your steadfast leadership in coming up with Rev.2 of the Pact for the Future, which is an important step in achieving our shared goal of producing a strategic and ground-breaking document; appropriate for Heads of State and Government, characterized by a high level of ambition; and action-oriented, both in substance and structure.

We note the inclusion of the following in Rev.2, which are some of the priorities of the Philippines: maritime security and cooperation, including the importance of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); positive contribution of migration; climate resilience and climate action; primacy of the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes; transforming multilateralism and strengthening of multilateral institutions; gender equality and human rights;  empowering all peoples, including the most vulnerable;  and global governance in cyberspace and outer space, among others.

We support your efforts to use the next few days for further consultations on each of the five chapters, with the objective of fine-tuning the text to achieve consensus on outstanding contentious issues.

In this regard, we would like to flag the following issues as highly relevant for the Pact for the Future as they reflect the situation on the ground and must be addressed for a credible and forward-looking outcome.

First, the Philippines views that middle-income countries (MICs) should be mentioned in the Pact as the future of sustainable development will largely be determined in MICs and other vulnerable developing countries. 

In this regard, we support the listing of least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States, and middle-income countries in the text in recognition of the challenges they are facing in pursuing sustainable development.

Second, as the host country of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund, the Philippines also calls for the inclusion of the need to support developing countries in addressing loss and damage caused by climate change in the Chapeau or under Action 9 on climate action.

Third, with the increasing frequency and severity of disasters, we hope we can strengthen the protection of persons through legal frameworks.

Fourth, on relevant paragraphs to international security and disarmament, verification mechanism could be less prescriptive, but could recognize future advances in verification technology.

Fifth, on paragraphs relating to emerging technologies affecting international security, we believe that there is merit to including a positive reference to facilitating the transfer of information and communication technology.

Finally, we wish to stress the importance of having a balance between human rights and development language.

Co-Facilitators, please be assured of my delegation’s continued support to your work in bringing this process to its successful conclusion.

Thank you.