The EcoWaste Coalition backs the ratification of an international treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.
The Senate Wednesday moved closer to approving the treaty as it adopted on second reading Senate Resolution No. 620 that expresses the chamber’s concurrence in the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Sen. Koko Pimentel, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the resolution last Jan. 21, which is expected to be approved on final reading next week.
“We support our nation’s stance illegalizing nuclear weapons and urge all countries, especially the world’s nuclear powers, to do the same as well,” said EcoWaste Coalition National Coordinator Aileen Lucero.
The treaty, which President Duterte ratified on Nov. 18, 2020, prohibits countries from producing, testing, acquiring, possessing, or stockpiling nuclear weapons.
It also bans the transfer of the weapons and forbids participating countries from allowing any nuclear explosive device to be stationed, installed, or deployed in their territory.
“Even as we did not make it to the first 50 countries that ratified the treaty, the anticipated Senate concurrence in its ratification will reinforce the state policy for a country and, by extension, a world, free of nuclear weapons,” Lucero said.
The treaty was signed by then Foreign AffairsSecretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Sept. 20, 2017 after it was adopted during a United Nations conference on July 7, 2017.
To date, more than 50 countries have ratified the nuclear weapons ban treaty, the environmental group noted.