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MANILA, Philippines – The Senate adopted a resolution Wednesday at second reading that would express the House’s agreement on ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
No senator objected when the Senate Majority Leader, Juan Miguel Zubiri, proposed to adopt Senate Resolution No. 620, expressing the Senate’s agreement with the ratification of the international pact.
The Senate is expected to pass the resolution on the final reading next Monday.
The treaty prohibits states parties from “developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, storing, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons; assist, encourage or induce any person to participate in such activities; and allow nuclear weapons to be stationed, installed or deployed in their respective territories ”.
“This mechanism can be compared to the effects of ‘herd immunity’, a term we now know and understand, that if enough states resist the use of nuclear weapons, their abuse and disuse have no more place to go,” he said. the Sen. Aquiline. “Koko” Pimentel III, chairman of the Senate foreign relations panel, said in endorsing the resolution for approval by the plenary session.
“And although not all states are immune to the use of nuclear weapons, the community of nations as a whole has protection,” he added.
According to Pimentel, countries that could potentially be affected by the use and testing of nuclear weapons “have much to gain from the TPNW provisions on victim assistance and environmental remediation.”
Before the House passed the resolution at second reading, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon questioned why the five nuclear states – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China – are not signatories to the treaty.
To date, at least 52 countries have ratified the pact, Pimentel said.
“They are the ones with nuclear weapons. The five permanent members of the United Nations, who have nuclear weapons, are not bound by this treaty, ”Drilon said.
Pimentel explained that under the treaty, the five nuclear states cannot request from a signatory state the use of their territory or area under their jurisdiction for the transit, as well as the temporary storage and travel of nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices. .
“I borrowed the concept of herd immunity to show that nuclear powered states are now surrounded by countries that are signatories to this treaty calling for a ban on nuclear weapons and we strengthen such a call if we do so because the treaty is already in force.” Pimentel said.
“So indeed, dahan-dahan nating pinapakita na, we are not cooperating with any activity related to nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices,” he added.
Adopted during a United Nations conference on July 7, 2017, the treaty was signed by then-Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on September 20, 2017.
President Rodrigo Duterte ratified the treaty more than three years later, on November 18, 2020, and then presented it to the Senate for approval.
The 1987 Constitution requires the concurrence of at least two-thirds of the 24 members of the Senate before any international agreement signed by the Philippines is binding.
KGA
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