2008
The first international conference on Philippine-Latin American Relations was held on December 15-17, 2008 in Manila, and was hosted by the City Government of Manila and the University of the Philippines. It was held in the latter and at the Pamantasan ng Ng Maynila The theme of the conference was "The Philippines and Latin America: Past, Present and Future." Presentations centered on cross-cultural contacts and exchange, Manila's origins, heritage, urban development; the Manila-Acapulco galleons: trade relations and problems of navigation; economic history, policies and investments; governance, revolts and empowerment: ancient, colonial and contemporary; art and heritage; development and demographic issues in the time of colonialism/globalization; everyday life: traditions and social practices; the old and the new in language, literature, music, architecture, arts and cinema; and problems of historical research in Philippine-Latin American studies.
2010
PACLAS held its second international conference on October 5-7, 2010 in Manila, hosted by De La Salle University in Manila and the University of Santo Tomas. The Department of Foreign Affairs and various Latin American embassies in the Philippines collaborated in the conference. In commemoration of the bicentennial of the independence movements in Latin America, the conference theme was "Liberation and Independence in the Philippines and in Latin American Countries Today: Shared Histories, Diversities and Future Prospects." Sub-topics included social justice, liberation movements, post-colonial developments, cultural revolution, and economic nationalism
2012
The third international conference was held on October 9-11, 2012 and was jointly organized with the Latin American Studies Council of Asia and Oceania (Consejo de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Asia y de Oceanía - CELAO). With the theme "Strengthening Exchanges across the Pacific," the rich potential and actual cooperation among the countries of Asia and Latin America was its overarching object. It sought to explore the multiple dimensions of interaction in time and space particularly in what has evolved into the Asia-Pacific region. Exchange involves people, ideas, goods, and values; shared experiences and heritage; converging issues and solutions even in divergent contexts. This presented a rich field for comparative studies between different countries and sub-regions. Some of the sub-themes of the conference included movements of people (including labor migration) and transnational identities; trade relations and policy; transpacific investments; diplomacy, security and conflict resolution; democratic transition, retrogression and consolidation; civil society and civil action; labor relations and social welfare programs; culture and heritage: the arts, language and literature, history.
2017
The fourth international conference was held on March 16-17, 2017 at the University of Santo Tomas and Ateneo de Manila University. It was jointly organized with the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and the Office of American Affairs (OAA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the Philippines. With the theme of "Strengthening Economic and Cultural Exchanges between the Philippines and Latin America," the conference explored dimensions of Philippine-Latin American relations within the larger context of Asia, including historical and socio-cultural aspects of relations, with a view to strengthening economic exchange between the Philippines and Latin America. It underlines the importance of mutual understanding as a basis of strong trade relations. Furthermore, the conference aims to identify areas of potentially vibrant exchanges between the Philippines and Latin America, drawing from the experience of other Asian countries.
The conference program included talks and lectures about the experience of Malaysia and China in promoting trade relations with Latin America; current Philippine relations and prospects of Latin American countries with diplomatic representation in the Philippines; trade scenario and prospects; and experiences of select Latin American investors in the Philippines and of Filipino investors in Latin America.