By Atty. Elma Christine R. Leogardo
President
Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs

The Institute for Maritime & Ocean Affairs (IMOA) is very privileged to co-present with the National Defense College of the Philippines today’s lecture by the Honorable Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, and to open a cartographic exhibit based on Justice Carpio’s extensive research on the right and duty of every Filipino to preserve and defend our territorial and maritime claims in the West Philippine Sea as mandated by the Philippine Constitution.

Allow me to briefly say a few words about the Institute for Maritime & Ocean Affairs. IMOA is a private, non-stock, non-profit corporation organized to conduct research, studies and seminars on maritime and ocean affairs of the Republic of the Philippines, and to publish and disseminate the results of such research, studies and seminars through various media, including the hosting of a website for this purpose, for general information, advocacy and educational purposes.

We aim to engage the public and encourage participation in discussions regarding our maritime and ocean concerns, and hopefully to provide valuable resource and feedback to policy makers, lawmakers, scientists, educators, researchers and other interested parties.

We invite you all to visit our website: www.imoa.ph

We would welcome any feedback, articles and information you may want to contribute or allow us to disseminate through our website.

Through our humble contribution, IMOA hopes to ignite our collective passion for this worthy cause, no matter how long it takes or what challenges we will have to face.

Thank you.