34. Allow me, first of all, to take this opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude the many expression^ of sympathy which my delegation has received from all sides. Including the Secretary-General and various delegations, following the disaster which has befallen my country as a result of the eruption of the Taal volcano. On an occasion like this, we learn once again the ancient truth that we are all neighbours huddled together on our fragile planet, and that all men are brothers in suffering and compassion.
35. Mr. President, may I Join those who have preceded me to this rostrum in extending to you our warm felicitations on your elevation to the Presidency of the General Assembly. Your election constitutes a recognition of your eminent personal qualifications as well as a tribute to the great country you so ably and fittingly represent. We are confident that under your wise guidance the General Assembly will be able to meet the grave challenges to the peace and wellbeing of mankind.
36. The Philippine delegation enters upon the work of the twentieth session with renewed faith in our capacity to make the United Nations an increasingly effective instrument for safeguarding world peace through freedom and justice, elevating the economic, social and cultural conditions of mankind, and advancing the rule of law in international relations. This sense of reawakened hope springs mainly from three major developments which reaffirm the desire and ability of our Organization to achieve the purposes set out in the Charter.
37. Firstly, we are deeply gratified by the success of the Security Council in bringing about a cease-fire between India and Pakistan. Although the cease-fire is yet to become completely effective and the truce is still precarious, we must welcome this event as proof of the efficacy of the Security Council whenever it acts with undivided will and purpose, with the devoted co-operation of the Secretary-General, as intended by the Charter, Our sense of satisfaction, however, and our optimism are conditioned by an awareness that the roots of the conflict run too deep and strong to justify any hope of an easy or immediate solution. Endless tact and infinite patience will be required to achieve a lasting peace.
38. Secondly, we are encouraged by the restoration of the normal functioning of the General Assembly. The Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations, ably guided by the distinguished President of the nineteenth session, Mr. Alex Quaison-Sackey, has enabled us to overcome a constitutional crisis which for some time paralysed the General Assembly. Fortunately for mankind, the Assembly has regained its dynamism in time to confront the increasing backlog of tasks undone. My delegation wishes to pay tribute to those delegations which, by their prudent statesmanship, helped to make possible an understanding that enabled the General Assembly to rise from a state of frustration. The Philippine delegation believes, however, that this happy outcome should not give occasion for complacency. On the contrary, we should try immediately to reach agreement on the necessary modalities for undertaking peace-keeping operations in the future. Only thus would we be able to meet with deliberate speed any threat to the peace without provoking another constitutional crisis that could destroy the United Nations. Such an agreement should be in conformity with the letter and spirit of the Charter, upholding, in particular, the principle of collective responsibility of Member States for the maintenance of international peace.
39. Thirdly, the Philippine delegation is elated by the ratification of the Charter amendments providing for an increase in the membership of both the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council. Beyond proving the capacity of the United Nations for dynamic growth and change, these amendments afford the nations of Asia and Africa a more equitable representation in these two principal organB and an opportunity to make more positive contributions to the work of the Organization as a whole. They will be able to give fuller voice to the aspirations of mankind for peace and well-being, thus deepening their sense of identification with the Organization and their Commitment to its principles and purposes.
40. My delegation is also encouraged by the fact that, despite the impasse in the General Assembly, our Organization, together with the specialized agencies, has been able to carry out without interruption many of its essential activities in the political, economic and social fields. This fact, of course, reflected the determination of our Governments and peoples that the effort to maintain international peace and security and to promote freedom and well-being should not suffer for any reason whatever. In this way, we asserted the primacy of human life and affirmed the principle that the United Nations was made for man and not man for the United Nations.
41. From these considerations which give us hope we turn sadly to the situation in Asia. The Asian scene is a sombre one. It is one of the ironies of history that this region, which taught the world the power of non-violence and gave to the United Nations the idea of International Co-operation Year, should now be rent from one end to the other by unresolved conflicts, armed confrontations, and open war.
42. The situation in Laos, though quiet for the moment, remains precarious, a potential threat to peace in the area. While Indonesia's political, economic and military confrontation of Malaysia has continued, the situation in Malaysia itself has recently been disturbed by secession and in Indonesia, only last night, by rebellion. Korea and Viet-Nam remain divided, the latter the battleground of a war whose end is not yet in sight. As we noted earlier, India and Pakistan have agreed to a cease-fire, but the fact that a tragic war between these two brother nations could happen at all shows how fragile peace has become in Asia.
43. And the threat is not to peace alone, but to human survival as well. For over Asia now looms the menace of further nuclear proliferation. Communist China is on the way to becoming a nuclear Power. Indonesia has announced its intention to become one. The implications of these events for the other Asian nations are extremely serious. Already there is growing pressure in India to manufacture an atomic bomb. How long will it be before the sense of insecurity, heightened by the fear that an effective system of universal disarmament may not be worked out in time, gives rise to a nuclear arms race in Asia?
44. The negative aspects of the Asian situation are so alarming that they tend to obscure the positive ones. What matter that a number of Asian countries are stable, prosperous, and making a success of democracy, when the general condition of the region suggests a process that could turn it into a cockpit for contending Powers? The dominant impression is of turmoil and violence: Asia is a "sea of troubles" which threatens to engulf all the constructive developments of the past two decades.
45. However, this time of trial for Asia is also a time of challenge and opportunity for all who are concerned with its condition and its destiny. For us, the newly independent Asian States, the challenge is to measure up to the responsibilities of freedom, to safeguard our independence against all forms of Imperialist or colonialist domination, whether old or new, and to regard the well-being of our peoples in a free and peaceful Asia as a goal worthy of our supreme endeavour and steadfast loyalty.
46. Asian nationalism demands a role compatible with recovered independence and dignity for the new Asian States in the vital task of ensuring their own survival. The concept of this role varies from nation to nation in Asia. On the basis of our bitter experience, we in the Philippines consider that Communist aggression and subversion have been and continue to be the chief threats to freedom and stability in Asia. So long as these threats remain, there will be a need for bilateral and regional defence arrangements with friendly non-Asian Powers, such as those which the Philippines has entered into in exercise of its rights under the Charter. To those nations which oppose such defence arrangements, we say that until the United Nations has set up a machinery for peacekeeping on a permanent basis, and until it has established the system of collective security envisaged in the Charter, we consider these bilateral and regional arrangements indispensable. At the same time, we are prepared to support proposals that would expedite the achievement of these twin United Nations goals of peace-keeping and collective security.
47. For their part, the non-Asian Powers which share the responsibility for the defence of the region should place their relationship with the new Asian States on a basis compatible with the aims of Asian nationalism. As President Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines has said, this is one of the inescapable consequences of Asian independence. No viable relationship between Asian and non-Asian Powers could be built or maintained on any other basis. To respond creatively to the challenge of Asian nationalism is one of the crucial tasks confronting non-Asian Powers which have a genuine interest in the welfare of the region.
48. One such response could take the form of sincere support for the efforts of Asian Governments to fashion a framework of stability and peace for Asian within which its component nations could achieve progress in freedom, In President Macapagal's words:
"The crying need of this area today is a stable peace which could provide the security indispensable to the unhampered development of all the nations in the area. Some form of regional association is required, based on natural and therefore permanent and indestructible affinities which should outweigh superficial conflicts of interest and transcend temporary differences of political outlook."
49. For the United Nations, the immediate challenge lies in the all-important field of security, and the first requirement is a strengthening of the will as well as of the machinery to keep the peace. The prompt decision of the Security Council in demanding a cease-fire between India and Pakistan has shown in a striking manner that the Council can effectively maintain the peace if the permanent members act together as intended by the Charter and if the nonpermanent members play the prudent role of catalysts in achieving unanimous agreement. Every effort should be made to ensure that acting thus together for peace shall. become the rule rather than the exception in the Security Council.
50. Such joint action appears mandatory when it is recalled that Communist China, preaching and practising a creed of hatred and violence, has deliberately tried to fan the flames of war in order to advance its own aggressive and expansionist aims. There is hardly any doubt that direct Communist Chinese intervention would provoke counter-intervention by other Powers, thereby setting off a world conflagration which, in this age of thermonuclear weapons, could lead us down the road to irreversible catastrophe.
51. It is in the context of the irresponsible conduct of Communist China in the Indo-Pakistan war that the Philippines reaffirms its opposition to the recognition of any right of the Peking régime to represent China in the United Nations. To do so would be to reward aggression and to condone that régime's unabashed policy of bellicosity against everybody who stands in the path of its arrogant ambition to dominate the world, including even its erstwhile friends and ideological allies. It would be tantamount to endorsing its sinister doctrine of the necessity of war, including nuclear war, as an instrument to ensure the triumph of the communist ideology. How could the General Assembly recognize a régime that holds the United Nations in profound contempt and openly espouses doctrines that are in absolute contradiction to the principles and purposes of our Charter?
52. With respect to the situation in Viet-Nam, the Philippines will continue to assist, within its means and on request, the Republic of Viet-Nam in its determined struggle to ward off communist infiltration and aggression. At the same time, we express the hope that it will be possible soon to arrange a cease-fire which will permit the parties in conflict to come to the conference table and work out a peaceful settlement.
53. As regards the question of Korea, the Philippines continues to support the objectives of the United Nations in Korea and the existence of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea to achieve these objectives. By the same token, the Philippines reiterates its support of the right of the German people to shape their own destiny in accordance with the principle of self-determination and within the framework of the peace and security of Europe.
54. The Philippines has co-sponsored with El Salvador and Nicaragua the request for the inscription of the item entitled "Question of Tibet" on our agenda [A/5931] because of the continued suppression of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Tibetan people. The situation in Tibet remains a source of grave concern to the international community, and efforts should be exerted to achieve the objectives of General Assembly resolution 1723 (XVI).
55. The Philippines will continue to support the work of the Committee of Twenty-Four until the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples [General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV)] is fully implemented and the last subject nation is brought to freedom. We should not relent in our efforts to complete the liquidation of colonialism. We should assist the colonial peoples not only to attain political independence, but also to become emancipated economically, to have control of their natural resources, and to direct their own commercial expansion and industrial development.
56. The Philippines will continue to do its share in combatting the racist policies of the Republic of South Africa. In line with our resolute opposition to the policies of apartheid we are prepared to co-operate in carrying out further practical measures to put an end to this vicious form of racism and racial oppression.
57. As a member almost continuously since 1946 of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the Philippines scarcely needs to reiterate its unfaltering devotion to the task of promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. As the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights draws near, my delegation is more determined than ever that the United Nations lamp of human dignity and freedom which started to shine like a beacon in 1948 shall illumine the farthest corners of the earth. Now that the covenants on human rights are approaching completion, the Costa Rican proposal to create the office of United Nations commissioner for human rights [A/5963] is both logical and timely, and the General Assembly should give it the careful consideration which it deserves.
58. The Philippines maintains its loyal adherence to the rule of law, and considers that all Member States would do well to take the first essential step to demonstrate such adherence by accepting, without further delay, the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. It is in the context of this principle that the Philippines will continue to pursue its claim to Sabah — or North Borneo — a claim the determination of which remains an essential factor in the normalization of relations between the Philippines and Malaysia.
59. I should like to conclude this statement with a brief reference to recent developments in the economic field. We are now at mid-point of the United Nations Development Decade. It is time to take stock of the progress made towards the goal we set four years ago: a minimum annual rate of economic growth of 5 per cent in the developing countries by the end of the Development Decade.
60. The first half of the Development Decade gives us little cause for complacency. Despite sustained effort during the last four years, the rate of growth achieved by the developing countries was well below the goal of 5 per cent, even lower than the growth rate during the second half of the previous decade. In contrast, the developed countries attained higher growth rates during this same period. The stern fact that emerges is that the gap between the rich nations and the poor, far from having narrowed, has grown even wider during the last four years.
61. Trade expansion is essential to the accelerated economic growth of the developing countries. The first four years of the Development Decade showed increases in their export earnings, but these, too, were proportionately lower than those of the developed countries, and below the average for the world as a whole. Consequently, the share of the developing countries in total world exports declined still further during the first half of the Development Decade.
62. Our efforts, both at the national and international levels, must, therefore, be redoubled. The international community must bring to the task of economic development even greater re sources than have already been expended. Fortunately, during the first half of this decade, we have taken various initiatives and established the institutions that should orient us in the direction in which we must move. There was the decision to increase the resources of the International Monetary Fund and of the Bank and its subsidiary organizations; the move to reorganize and augment the resources available to the United Nations development programmes; the setting up of regional development banks; and the establishment of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. But what logically must come next are decisions expressive of the political will to ensure that these initiatives and institutions will yield optimum results.
63. Scarcely a year ago, the General Assembly established the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, through which it was hoped to reorganize the structure of international trade in order to meet the needs of the developing countries. In the intervening period, the Conference passed through its difficult organizational phase. That experience, we regret to say, has not left us very much heartened. While the Conference may have moved forward, the ground gained was neither easily won nor generously yielded. Indeed, we are concerned that the Conference might become, not a forum of international partnership and co-operation, but an arena of economic confrontation. The developing countries pin great hopes on the Conference on Trade and Development and it would be tragic to see it reduced to impotence simply because our developed trading partners fail to perceive that its work cannot be concerned only with legal rights and obligations, which they stubbornly Insist upon, but rather more with the application of justice and equity. The Conference seeks to rectify inequitable patterns of trade and commercial behaviour that have been imposed on the less developed countries through centuries of foreign domination.
64. While we worry about the political and ideological issues that have led or could lead to war, we should not forget that the most dangerous confrontations of the future will arise from an irreconcilable division of the world into rich nations growing richer and poor nations becoming poorer still. We shall not be able to avoid this fatal enmity unless the developed nations accept the obligation quickly and deliberately to modify their economic objectives and methods in order to favour the needs and aspirations of the less-developed and developing countries of the world. This is not the language of pessimism or extremism, but a simple statement of fact.
65. The establishment of regional development banks in Latin America, Africa, and now in Asia, is one of the finest examples of international co-operation in the field of economic development. The Idea of an Asian development bank first took shape at the first Ministerial Conference on Asian Economic Co-operation held in Manila in December 1963. Its draft charter will be considered at the second Ministerial Conference, also to be convened in Manila before the end of this year. We hope that this will be followed immediately by a conference of plenipotentiaries, after which the Charter will be opened for signature. We are greatly heartened, therefore, by the positive response to this bank, particularly from the developed countries outside the Asian region. There can be no doubt that the Asian Development Bank will play a major, if not a decisive role In the economic development of the countries in the Asian region. The offer of my Government of facilities in Manila for the bank headquarters demonstrates our trust and faith In its vital historic role, and I am glad to extend our official invitation on this occasion,
66. I have dealt with a number of questions that enjoy the highest priority in the agenda of the present session. Many of these questions concern Asia and are of the deepest concern to us. In recent years, my Government has tried to assist in the peaceful settlement of various disputes and conflicts in our region. At the same time, Manila, the capital of my country, has been a centre for new and promising initiatives toward intensified co-operation for trade and industrial development in the ECAFE region. Out of the experience I wish to pledge to you, Mr. President, and to the Assembly, the full and loyal co-operation of the Philippines in planning and carrying out a broad and effective United Nations programme for the improvement of the human condition and the defence of peace.
67. The preparation and execution of this programme of peace and well-being should receive tremendous impetus from the historic visit which His Holiness Pope Paul VI will make to the United Nations three days hence. The presence amongst us of this .great man of peace, revered and beloved keeper of the most enduring spiritual values of mankind, shall be an Inspiration for us all to strive harder for harmony and understanding. Recognizing the true meaning of his leadership, let us resolve to accept with dignity and humility the challenge of the message he will bring to us.