CABACTULAN Libran
Amb. Cabactulan is a career diplomat, with educational background in the
fields of political science and economics. He obtained his bachelor and master
degrees in Political Science from the University of the Philippines and a Certificate in Development
Economics from the School
of Economics of the same
university. He had a Diploma with merit for Commercial Policy from the General
Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), in Geneva,
Switzerland.
Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked at the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA) as Staff Economist. His foreign assignments were
in Geneva, Brussels,
New York City (1986-1990 and 1995-2000) at the
Philippine Mission to the United Nations, Sydney
and the United Arab Emirates.
He was previously assigned in the Home Office as Executive Director of the
Office for the United Nations and Other International Organizations (UNIO) and
Special Assistant to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Cabactulan has extensive experience in negotiations. He was a
member of a team that negotiated Philippine accession to the General Agreements
on Tariffs and Trade. He participated in a number of negotiations on textile
agreements, the General System of Preferences or GSP and Coffee Export Quota.
He led the G-77 in
the negotiations on economic and related issues at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva
(General Assembly, ECOSOC, Commission on Sustainable Development, Population
Commission, UNICEF and UNDP) in 1989 and in 1996. He was the facilitator of the
UN Ad Hoc Working Group that paved the way for the convening of the Summit on Financing for
Development.