The Department of Energy (DOE) is spearheading the Philippine government’s efforts on negotiating the administrative agreement (AA) that will be signed with the US government to underpin the “123 Agreement’ that was cemented last year for the targeted deployment of nuclear technologies in the country.

A parallel negotiation is also being advanced with the Canadian government for the signing of similar administrative agreement for the enforcement of a nuclear pact that was signed by the two countries back in the 1980s.

According to Energy Undersecretary Sharon S. Garin, the AA will serve as implementing rules to the 123 Agreement that was signed with the American government; and it serves a similar purpose for the country’s nuclear deal with Canada.

In case of the United States, she emphasized that “the finalization of the AA will be done after the 123 Agreement’s ratification by the Philippine government – and that’s already under evaluation by the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs).”

She conveyed that the decision point is currently weighed on whether the ratification shall be done by the Senate or if President Marcos can serve as the signatory – and the plan is to anchor that on the recent trilateral agreement that was cemented by the Philippines with the US and Japan.

“For the US, we need to ratify the 123 Agreement and that’s under process. That will depend on the DFA decision and recommendation – whether the President can ratify or the Senate – that’s already part of the DFA protocols,” the energy official stressed.

Garin added “once we have the 123 (agreement) ratification done and hopefully soon enough, then we can negotiate for the administrative agreements.”

She expounded that “for the US, even without the administrative agreement yet, we are already talking with them on collaboration” – primarily on capacity enhancement activities needed to prepare the country on its nuclear renaissance pathway.

On the part of Canada, she narrated that “we received the draft and we sent back the draft for comments and we’re supposed to have negotiating discussions already.”

Garin qualified the DOE is also checking if the old agreement with Canada had been previously ratified, “but if not, it will be part of the whole package for the multilateral agreements – because nuclear program is also part of that.”

The DOE official explained that the AAs will flesh out the implementing rules of the mother agreements – like the 123 Agreement with the US – and these will delve with concerns like capacity building activities; and “identifying the areas that we can work on with other key stakeholders” -- including those with the academe as well as with various government agencies.