APPF Press Conference Day 1: Opening Statement of Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri

We in the Senate and the House of Representatives are proud to host this year's Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, where we are welcoming 275 foreign delegates, including the Senate Presidents of the Senates of Thailand and Malaysia.

This year, we have 19 member-countries participating in the Annual Meeting, from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mexico, the Federal States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Viet Nam, and of course, the Philippines.

All of our participating parliaments have submitted resolutions on Political and Security Matters, Economic and Trade Matters, and Regional Cooperation, that we will be discussing in plenary and in working groups over the next three days. These cover everything from climate action to transnational crimes, from universal health care to critical infrastructure.

Shared solutions to shared concerns. This is our goal.

Earlier today, we already had our Executive Committee where we referred 37 draft resolutions to their working groups:

• 10 under Strengthening the Capacity of Parliaments to Promote Peace and Stability

• 5 under Combatting Transnational Crimes

• 3 under Critical Infrastructure

• 4 under Human Development and Inclusive Growth

• 4 under Regional Cooperation through Education and Culture

• 2 under Universal Health Care

• 4 under Gender and Sustainable Development Goals

• and 5 under Women's Participation and Leadership

In the working groups and the drafting committee, we will be consolidating similar resolutions into single resolutions, and all our parliamentarians will be working together to come up with language and calls to action that are agreeable to all parties.

In the Execom, we also approved the agenda for the APPF Annual Meeting, and our country proposed an amendment to the rules, to include the meeting of Young Parliamentarians as a Regular Meeting for every year.

On the last day of our Annual Meeting, we will be producing a joint communiqué that will reflect the discussions and developments of the APPF 31. It will be signed by all heads of delegations, and will then serve as a guiding document for our multilateral cooperation and partnerships as we go forward.

In a sense, we see our hosting of the APPF as a coming-out party for the Philippines--a signal of our active presence as a partner in pursuing peace, prosperity, and progress in the Asia Pacific region.

This is our way of showing the rest of the Asia Pacific that we are here, and we are ready to form strong partnerships toward the collective growth of our nations.