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Help for refugees and stateless persons: Sen. Robinhood Padilla seeks to institutionalize the policy in the determination of eligibility for protection of refugees or stateless persons by creating the Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Board. During Tuesday’s hearing, September 17, 2024 of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Padilla, author of Senate Bill No. 2548 otherwise known as the Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Act, said the Board shall be an attached agency of the Department of Justice. “So I hope that through this proposed measure, what we can do, will be clear for our countrymen and to those who are also asking for our temporary protection,” Padilla said in Filipino. “I hope we should not forget that our Constitution, in its preamble, it is about our faith in God. When we say we believe in God, our love for others follow, whether Filipino or not,” he added. The proposed measure is also part of Philippine commitment to international treaties such as the 1951 UN Convention related to the Status of Refugees and the 1954 UN Convention related to the Status of Stateless Persons, among others. (Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)