“Hopes for calmer times under this year’s new management?” The Economist earlier tacked that keep-your-fingers-crossed title on a “leader” for a 2013 Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. Were those “hopes” partly achieved Wednesday and Thursday in Brunei?
I often hear the lament that we Filipinos are not as mindful as our neighbors appear to be of the impending closer integration of the Southeast Asian economies into the Asean Economic Community (AEC), to culminate less than two years from now. I have heard none of our candidates for national office in the coming elections address the topic, for example, in the way it figures in public discussions within our neighboring countries. And yet, this move of the 10 nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) promises to have profound implications within and across their respective economies.
Amid the spiraling chaos in Lahad Datu, Sabah, a crucial question has been raised which no one has yet explored: What can the Association of Southeast Asian Nations do? The answer is, put plainly and simply, nothing.
Last month we were treated to a fascinating 2-part series on Roberto Ongpin, trade minister during the Marcos years from 1979-1986. While I served under Finance Minister Cesar E.A. Virata, who was also the prime minister under an interim parliamentary system established in 1978, I had the opportunity to interact with Ongpin on a number of issues that involved trade and customs matters. I was dealing with two completely different personalities, but I had no doubt they were both men of integrity and courage who did their best serving the nation under difficult circumstances.
The last-minute decision of Malaysian authorities in Sabah to stop the repatriation of Manuel Amalilio, for still undetermined reasons, is a setback for the Philippine effort to render justice to the victims of the P12-billion Aman Futures scam. But it is also a test for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Treaty on Mutual Legal [...]
Last Nov. 18, the Asean Human Rights Declaration was signed by the 10 Asean heads of state. This Asian Magna Carta is a document of 40 articles comprising sections on general principles, civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, development, peace, and international cooperation in the promotion and protection of human rights. Nothing like it has ever been adopted by any country or by any other bloc with a legal personality in the region.
Placing consensus above all, it is fair to say that Asean leaders are generally not known for their displays of emotion or passion.
Of course we’ve every right to be regally pissed off at China and register our outrage in the most vociferous ways. To say that China’s recent moves have been belligerent is to say that Israel’s threats against Iran, and vice versa, have been belligerent. In recent weeks, those have included, in quick succession, issuing passports [...]
The 7.1 percent Philippine economic growth in the third quarter “posted the fastest expansion” within the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), gloated Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. He said that the year-to-date growth was already 6.5 percent, prompting him to predict that the full-year growth would likely surpass the government’s target of 7 to [...]
“ONCE AGAIN, Cambodia tried to pull a fast one on the Philippines and other Asean countries involved in territorial disputes with China,” the Inquirer noted in Thursday’s editorial on the just concluded 21st Asean Summit in Phnom Penh.
The association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, ended in a shambles on Wednesday over how to check China’s aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
A couple of things are happening in our part of the world that say much about us. One is Barack Obama’s visit to Burma (Myanmar) and the other is our breaking up with Asean and going it alone in our approach to China.
