UPF’s International Leadership Conference on 29-31 July 2022 (UPF Asia Pacific)

✅MESSAGE OF MAYOR LEOPOLDO N. BATAOIL

RE: UPF’s International Leadership Conference on 29-31 July 2022 (UPF Asia Pacific) at the Grand Hyatt Manila, Taguig City.

Theme: Towards Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula: Creating a Global Culture of Peace

 Respected colleagues from over 70 countries, I speak before all of you with paramount goodwill, great privilege, and utmost delight.

 Let me extend my warmest welcome to very important personalities who have made this event conceivable- to the Universal Peace Federation led by Hon. Dr. Yun Young-ho and Hon. Dr. Thomas G. Walsh; to our esteemed keynote speakers; to the admired session moderators; and to all other well-regarded participants from all over Asia Pacific who have a steadfast belief on the reunification of the Korean Peninsula– a beautiful day, my distinguished colleagues!

 Last February 13, a very significant instrument called the Seoul Resolution was adopted and signed during the World Summit 2022. Towards sustainable peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, the Resolution cites, among others, that collaborative effort will “urge the two Koreas and the international community to pursue bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoiding military confrontations, maintaining and promoting peace, stability and predictability, and increasing mutual understanding and confidence towards a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

 Current and former Heads of State/Government, Parliamentarians, high-level representatives, religious leaders, academicians, business and media leaders, First Ladies, women leaders, and artists participating in the World Summit 2022 had already joined the move to work in synergy towards the great Korean Peninsula we all hope it to be. The Philippines, pursuant to our Constitution and considering the presence of some of our leaders here today, is also ever-supportive of such movement.

 As I had been very persistent in saying, every fight, every war aims at only one thing- peace. While there is a seemingly natural reflex to fight with arms, our contemporary world gives us opportunities to resort to pacific modes, particularly with respect to our international relations. The United Nations Charter, to which most countries- including the Republic of Korea- adhere to, even expressly declares that international disputes must be resolved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace, security, and justice are not endangered. The Charter even discourages threat or use of force as well as offensive warfare.

 I then commend this International Leadership Conference for being a concrete evidence of our consonance with the peaceful mechanisms, of the big possibility of a peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula and its positive effect to creating a global culture of peace. This gathering is a loud and recurrent voice that calls for this reunification.

 The road we are traversing leading to our objective may not always be paved. There will be numerous ramifications to the social, political, geopolitical, and economic spheres. Nonetheless, I know, we know that everything will be worth it. A unified Korea will be the first of many triumphs on the subject of international amity, cooperation, and harmony.

 Now, one thing is certain: all the peace talks, webinars, and international leadership conferences like this have been playing significant role to the forthcoming reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Thus, I congratulate each one of us here today!

 Anew, this is the International Leadership Conference towards the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Welcome aboard!

  Thank you and Mabuhay!