Quezon Day Brown Bag Forum for Refugees
“It is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that the people of the Philippines will have in the future every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was glad to extend to a persecuted people, a hand of welcome.” President Manuel Quezon during the dedication ceremony of the community house, “the Marikina hall” (April 23, 1940)
PASAY CITY 19 August 2021 — In commemoration of the late President Manuel Luis Quezon’s legacy for refugees towards a more compassionate foreign policy, and amidst the recent turn of events in Afghanistan, the Department of Foreign Affairs - Office of Policy Planning and Coordination (OPPC), in coordination with the Office of United Nations and Other International Organizations (UNIO), conducted a virtual brown bag forum entitled “Foreign Policy and Refugees” on Quezon Day, 19 August 2021.
The brown bag forum examined the categories of persons of concern, current global and regional initiatives, the Philippines’ national initiatives and pledges to the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) and High Level Segment on Statelessness (HLS), and a Whole-of-Nation Approach. It also covered the Nine Waves of Refugees in the Philippines, the Complementary Pathways (CPath) Program, Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM), and policy initiatives.
UNIO Assistant Secretary Noralyn Jubaira-Baja noted that at the 75th UN General Assembly in September 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte underscored that the doors of the Philippines are open, as they have always been, to everyone fleeing for safety, such as the Rohingyas. OPPC Assistant Secretary Grace Cruz-Fabella highlighted that compassion is not limited to the Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) section, but also in planning and policy. The latter added that the expertise and insights shared during the brown bag forum can be incorporated in the Department’s strategic planning process.
Speakers of the virtual forum included Ms. Maria Louella Gamboa, Senior Protection Associate, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – Philippines, and Atty. Paulito de Jesus, Assistant Head of the Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit of the Department of Justice. END
