Remarks by Ambassador Harry K. Thomas, Jr. at the AFPMC-AFRIMS Collaborative Molecular Laboratory Inauguration

Acknowledgements

Honorable Secretary Gazmin,General Oban, Dr. Herbosa, Colonel Avanceña, Men and Women of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Ladies and Gentlemen;

Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat!

First of all, please allow me to congratulate the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the AFP Medical Center on the inauguration of the Second Post Graduate Course of the Department of Research and Training and the AFP Medical Center Ethics Review Board.

Your tireless efforts will ensure that education, information sharing and cooperation are strengthened between the military and its civilian counterparts.

This program will improve our understanding of health and medicine, and also emphasize the rights of patients and ethical issues in the conduct of medical studies. Respect and care for humanity is the very core of both our governments’ desire to seek new solutions and treatments for diseases that affect the human race.

The result of our governments’ efforts is the renovation of the Collaborative Molecular Laboratory, a landmark facility that will be inaugurated later this morning. I would like to highlight the invaluable support of the U.S. Biosecurity Engagement Program making this vision into a reality.

It is both our governments’ wish that the new laboratory of the AFP Medical Center become the source of innovations, solutions and treatments that will address diseases that may affect your troops’ health.

But beyond that, we hope that discoveries made here benefit the Philippines, the United States, and all of humanity.

Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude for the warm welcome you have shown me, the members of the United States military, and the delegates from the U.S. Biosecurity Engagement Program.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!