Binay is going to Harvard

Vice President Jejomar Binay is going to Harvard.

With international tensions rising over territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea, Binay is brushing up on his knowledge in international security studies.

Binay, a reserved Marine colonel, was scheduled to leave late Saturday night for the United States to attend a Senior Executives in National and International Security (NIS) course at Harvard University.

The Vice President, who is the concurrent chair emeritus of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and the head of the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (PTFAIR), will also discuss the “state of security in Southeast Asia” with his classmates in the two-week study program.

“It is important that we learn the means to strengthen the security of our country,” Binay said, adding that he would be using his own money to attend the course.

“Also, we will have the opportunity to share the experience of the Philippines when it comes to security matters and also learn from the experiences of other countries,” he added.

Binay was scheduled to leave at 10 p.m. Saturday via Philippine Airlines Flight No. PR102 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2.

According to the Harvard Kennedy School, the NIS course offers “a setting for senior executives to deepen their understanding of current security issues, exercise their evaluation and decision-making skills in a group of their peers, and contribute their own ideas and perspectives.”

The program, which runs from August 14-26, includes formal classes, discussion groups, interactive seminars, exercises, guest speakers and informal conversations on security- and management-related issues.

For this year, NIS will tackle security issues in South Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Arab regions; US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy; the US military and strategy security issues; nuclear terrorism; cyber security, and counterterrorism, among others.

Participants of the NIS usually include generals and admirals from the militaries of different countries as well as senior civilian leaders in government, international organizations and the defense industry.

“We have much to gain from this learning program. It could provide us insights on how we could address our own security problems here in the Philippines,” Binay said.