
THE House of Representatives secretariat, led by Secretary General Reginald S. Velasco, on Monday met with agencies from the Executive branch to finalize preparations for the two-day Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum (PI-SF) which shall be held on Feb. 3 and 4 at the Batasan Complex.
The PI-SF is the venue where experts from the Philippines and other countries share with legislators global best practices to enhance legislative responses and foster stronger international partnerships to combat evolving threats and address critical issues on security, intelligence and emerging technologies.
Topics for discussions range from cybersecurity, cryptocurrencies, human trafficking, artificial intelligence to 5G, among others.
Velasco and House secretariat officials thoroughly discussed the PI-SF preparations, which included security, physical, transportation and medical arrangements, to ensure a meaningful dialogue among participants and seamless conduct of this two-day diplomatic event.
House Inter-Parliamentary and Public Affairs Department Deputy Secretary General Grace Andres announced that several House members as well as foreign parliamentarians and delegates have already registered for the forum.
Officials from the Department of the National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of the Interior and Local Government have also signified their interest to participate in the international security dialogue.
“We are expecting 200 delegates but since we have extended also some invitations to certain Executive offices, so we expect also the head of the agencies to join at the parliamentary forum at the People’s Center Main Hall,” Andres said.
House officials also conducted a walkthrough to assess and gain a thorough grasp of the situation in preparation for the PI-SF.
Also in attendance were House Deputy Secretaries General Dr. Romulo Emmanuel Miral Jr., Atty. Annalou Nachura, Dante Roberto Maling, Atty. David Robert Amorin, Dr. Edgardo Pangilinan, as well as the directors of various offices and services.