To the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr.;
Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe;
Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) Officer-in-Charge Deputy Executive Director for Management Services Dr. Macario T. Jusayan;
Of course, to our host today, PICC General Manager Atty. Nicolette Ann P. Cruz;
United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, Mr. Arnaud Peral;
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Baba Takashi;
Distinguished leaders and fellow public servants, colleagues from the diplomatic corps, our friends from civil society, the academe, and the media, development partners, and fellow champions of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda—a pleasant morning to everyone.
Assalamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
It is my great honor to join you in this landmark Philippine Conference on Women, Peace and Security as we mark a defining moment in our shared journey toward peace that is truly inclusive and transformative.
This year holds a deep meaning for all of us. We commemorate 45 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 30 years since the Gender and Development (GAD) budget policy was introduced as “The Women’s Budget” under the 1995 General Appropriations Act (GAA), 25 years since the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and 15 years since our very own National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAPWPS)—the first of its kind in Asia.
Each of these milestones reminds us that peace and equality are not simply aspirations written in policy, but principles fought for and lived by women who have long stood at the frontlines of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and recovery.
From Global Declarations to Local Action
Last year, the Philippines successfully hosted the first ministerial-level International Conference on WPS, which brought together hundreds of leaders and advocates from across the globe. That moment led to the signing of the Pasay Declaration, a shared call to action that reaffirmed our collective resolve to put women at the heart of peace processes and governance.
Building on this momentum, the 2025 Philippine Conference on WPS shifts our focus from global commitments to local realities—the stories, struggles, and innovations at the grassroots that bring the WPS Agenda to life every single day.
Fiscal Empowerment and Open Governance
As Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), I am deeply honored to lead this Conference, together with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, the Philippine Commission on Women, and the WPS Center of Excellence, with support from our partners from the United Nations Development Programme, the UN Women, and the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP).
As the Philippines prepares to chair ASEAN 2026, we will ensure that the WPS Agenda stays at the top of ASEAN priorities.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, we continue to uphold “The Women’s Budget” or the GAD Budget, which directs all government agencies to allocate a minimum of five percent of their total annual budgets for gender programs, projects, and activities. This policy mainstreams gender budget tagging and advocates for gender-responsive budgeting.
Through gender-responsive budgeting, we ensure that our policies and investments empower and uplift the lives of the most vulnerable particularly women, indigenous peoples, and children and youth.
I am also proud to share that under the first-ever multi-framework and multi-stakeholder Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment, the Philippine PFM system received above average scores across 7 key indicators on gender-responsiveness. We likewise conducted supplementary assessments to ensure that our PFM systems are also climate-responsive, disaster-resilient, and children-responsive.
Toward peacebuilding, our flagship peace and development convergence program, the PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn (PAMANA), has notably improved the lives of the Filipino people through capacity-building, reconstruction, and development in conflict-affected areas.
And through our work with the Open Government Partnership, we continue to pursue our commitments to strengthen transparency and accountability, such as pursuing the Right to Information Act, ensuring that governance is not just about numbers, but about people and their right to participate in decisions that shape their lives.
Grounded Peacebuilding in Action
Amidst all these efforts, as we begin this conference, we must remember the core realization that inspired our mission: that indeed, peace cannot exist without women who mend the social fabric torn by years of conflict through their daily acts of leadership, compassion, and resilience.
We have seen this vision of women’s empowerment towards peace and security come to life across our localities.
In Mindanao, women peacebuilders have bridged divides between communities through dialogue and inclusive governance.
In the Cordilleras, indigenous women leaders are preserving ancestral lands while promoting conflict-sensitive development.
In local governments across the country, gender-responsive planning and budgeting have helped integrate peace and security concerns into local policies, ensuring that women are not only beneficiaries but leaders and partners in peacebuilding.
At the regional level, we have seen ASEAN move decisively on WPS, with the adoption of the Regional Plan of Action on WPS in late 2022, giving us a formal roadmap—across participation, protection, prevention, and relief—for embedding women’s leadership in peace efforts throughout Southeast Asia.
And complementing this, the Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace initiative 2021-2025 is supporting women peacebuilders on the ground in multiple member states, translating regional commitments into local action and strengthening networks of women negotiators and mediators.
These examples remind us that sustainable peace grows from the ground up—nourished by communities that not only pose problems but propose solutions, and reinforced by a regional solidarity that allows local efforts to resonate across our community of nations.
We must bear in mind, however, that around the world, we still see the return of armed conflict, the spread of disinformation and hate, the shrinking of civic space, and the rollback of hard-won gains for women’s rights. The climate crisis, too, continuously intensifies the risks faced by the most vulnerable.
Clearly, our work is far from over.
Hence, we must not only narrate the success stories of our local WPS champions as agents of socioeconomic transformation but amplify the voices, cries, and demands of women even further—not only for our generation but more so to inspire our future generation of leaders, policy- and decision-makers, and even peacebuilders.
And so we look forward not only to hearing success stories and exchanging best practices, but most importantly to charting the path towards a truly inclusive, just, and lasting peace as women, together.
Welcome to the Philippine Conference on WPS!
Maraming salamat po.
