DFA EXEC SAYS By DONA MAGSINO, GMA News Published January 14, 2021 5:42pm Updated January 14, 2021 10:12pm Then DFA secretary (now Taguig Rep) Alan Peter Cayetano signs the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 20, 2017. Karl Norman Alonzo/PPD The pending Senate concurrence to the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) would not prevent the Philippines from exploring nuclear energy, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday. "This does not affect our current nuclear energy program. What is prohibited is the acts enumerated in Article 1 and this does not affect the inalienable rights of the state to pursue, research, and development in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," DFA Director Marge Malang said in a Senate hearing on foreign relations.