UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 28 January 2022 – Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo has been endorsed by Member States of the United Nations as Chair-designate of the Eighth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS8) to consider the implementation of the UN Programme of Action (PoA) on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW).
The Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons aims to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons in all its aspects. The BMS8 meeting is mandated to consider the national, regional, and global implementation of the Program of Action and the International Tracing Instrument (ITI), including means of enhancing modalities and procedures for international cooperation and assistance.
Under Ambassador Manalo’s leadership, Member States will discuss and later on negotiate an outcome document which will build on the work of the earlier BMS meetings.
Following the rotation of leadership across regional groups of the UN, Ambassador Manalo was initially endorsed by the Asia Pacific Group (APG) to the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) on 22 December 2022 as the official nominee of the APG to BMS8. He is scheduled to begin informal consultations next month and conduct them regularly thereafter, leading to the BMS8 session to be held in New York in June 2022. Following the rules or procedure, Permanent Representative Manalo and his Bureau will be formally elected on the first day of the session.
From the Philippine perspective, addressing the issues surrounding diversion of small arms and light weapons, that may eventually end up in the hands of terrorists and criminals, are a priority for the Philippines.
The Philippines values supporting long-term, standardized, systematic and disaggregated data collection and analysis, including small arms surveys, to identify trafficking routes and patterns, diversion points and other methods of concealing weapons for the purpose of trafficking, with the end goal of generating evidence-based, effective policy making and programming.
Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs