State Visit by President Halimah Yacob to the Republic of the Philippines, 8 to 12 September 2019

President Halimah Yacob was in Davao City as part of her State Visit to the Philippines. This morning, President Halimah visited the Philippine Eagle Centre which is a conservation breeding facility for the national bird of the Philippines. President Halimah toured the Centre’s facilities and interacted with members of the indigenous peoples communities who are partners of the Philippine Eagle Foundation. A pair of the critically endangered Philippine Eagles arrived at Jurong Bird Park in June 2019, under a 10-year breeding loan agreement between the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS).
 

In Davao, President Halimah also participated in a dialogue session with youths, hosted by the Al Qalam Institute for Islamic Identities and Dialogue in Southeast Asia at Ateneo de Davao University. President Halimah emphasised the importance of building trust and understanding across different races and faiths during times of peace, which would allow a society to be more resilient in the face of conflict. To this end, President Halimah shared Singapore’s community-based efforts in fostering interfaith harmony through the creation of platforms for meaningful dialogue, such as the Inter-Racial and Religious Circle of Confidence. Singapore also held the International Conference on Cohesive Societies in June this year. President Halimah underscored that a society’s diversity was a source of strength, and should be cherished and protected. During the dialogue, youth representatives from religious groups, student government bodies and civic organisations engaged President Halimah on topics such as inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony.
 
 
President Halimah returned to Manila in the afternoon and attended a dinner reception hosted by the Singapore Embassy for the Singaporean community in the Philippines. President Halimah will return to Singapore tomorrow.

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
11 SEPTEMBER 2019