12 October 2016 —Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Undersecretary of Science and Technology for Research and Development, and Ambassador Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson, Philippine Resident Representative to the IAEA led the Philippine delegation to the 60th Regular Session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the related meetings from September 26 to 30.
Officials from the Philippine Permanent Mission in Vienna, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, and Department of Education ensured active Philippine participation in the related meetings and side events.
Reading the Philippine Statement, Undersecretary Guevara cited several tangible contributions of the IAEA to the Philippines’ national development, particularly in the areas of food security, water management, health, environmental protection, education and capacity-building. She expressed the Philippines’ support as well for IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano’s candidature for a third term as IAEA Director General.
Ambassador Angara Collinson also delivered an intervention on the implementation of the safeguards agreement between the IAEA and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. She cited the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ statement in her intervention, calling on the DPRK to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and comply with relevant UNSC resolutions.
Undersecretary Guevara and some members of the Philippine delegation also visited the IAEA’s Nuclear Applications Laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria. The Philippines contributed to the IAEA’s project on the renovation of the Nuclear Applications Laboratories also known as ReNuAL.
The Philippines is an incumbent member of the IAEA Board of Governors, the Executive Body of the IAEA which consists of thirty-five Member States, until the end of the 61st Regular Session of the General Conference in September 2017. The Philippines became a Member State of the International Atomic Energy Agency on 02 September 1958. END
