Philippines signs Facility Agreement

The Philippines has signed a Facility Agreement with the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The Facility Agreement was signed by Ambassador Victor G. Garcia III on behalf of the Philippines, and by the Executive Secretary, Wolfgang Hoffmann, on behalf of the Commission. The Agreement grants the Preparatory Commission the necessary legal authority to carry out work on International Monitoring System facilities on the territory of the Philippines. It is the 25th Facility Agreement which the Commission has signed.

The Philippines signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 24 September 1996 and ratified it on 23 February 2001. Compliance with the terms of the Treaty is monitored by a global verification regime, which uses seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide technologies to detect evidence of possible nuclear explosions.

The 337-facility International Monitoring System is a key element in the global verification regime. Under the terms of the CTBT, the Philippines hosts three monitoring stations: two auxiliary seismic stations at Davao, Mindanao (AS079) and Tagaytay, Luzon (AS080), and a radionuclide station at Quezon City (RN52).