Seven (7) students from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, including Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) student Erwin Vibora, won the Honorable Mention Delegation Award in the 2016 National Model United Nations (NMUN) Conference held last March 27 -31, 2016 in United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Other delegates are, Kristina Abigail Boada, Renee Louise Co, Lisette Erica Dimalanta, Ryan Ralph Nicolas, Juliver Tomas, all from the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy and Angelo Lagman from the College of Mass Communication.
The 2016 NMUN.NY Conference in partnership with National Collegiate Conference Association (NCAA) associated with the UN Department of Information is an annual UN conference participated by more than 7,000 outstanding University students coming from 411 Colleges and Universities worldwide. In this event, delegates analyze their country’s social, economic, cultural and political conditions and create solutions to pressing problems through engagement with other delegates from other nations. The UP Diliman delegation has been assigned to the country of Comoros, a sovereign archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean and they worked under General Assembly First Committee (GA1), General Assembly Second Committee (GA2), General Assembly Fourth Committee (GA4) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
For the delegation award, evaluation criteria included: (1) Remaining in character – defined as advocating an assigned country’s position in a manner consistent with economic, social and geopolitical constraints, (2) Participating in committee – evaluated both during formal sessions and caucuses, (3) Proper use of the rules of procedure – NMUN uses the rules of procedure to facilitate effective workings of committee and debate (www.nmun.org).
Vibora worked under GA2 with the topics and discussion of Promoting Access to Renewable and Sustainable Energy for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development, Financing Development and World Commodity Trends and Prospects. Based on NMUN website, the GA is a principal organ of the UN, the only one with universal membership and equal voting. As one of the six Main Committees of the General Assembly, the Second Committee deals with economic and financial issues. It provides a forum for the international community to discuss issues such as international trade, sustainable development and financial regulation.
“It is both an honor and a privilege to be selected as a delegate to this annual UN conference to discuss important world issues and to represent not only UP Diliman but also the Philippines. The NMUN.NY experience gave me an opportunity to work with different nations, having different cultures and background and became a global citizen for a week,” Vibora said.