Aquino: PH playing bigger ASEAN role

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III returned from a four-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia Monday, reporting that the regional body had discussed the need for a collective response to calamities as well as the problems of drug trafficking and piracy.

In his arrival address at Villamor Air Base, where his chartered jet touched down shortly past noon, Mr. Aquino also said the Philippines was taking its place in the regional body as an “ardent, active and helpful neighbor.”

Before delivering his arrival speech, Mr. Aquino proceeded to a lounge inside the Villamor hangar to meet with Cabinet officials. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin briefed him on the government’s response to Tropical Storm “Bebeng” (international name: Aere).

In his speech, the President said the just-concluded 18th ASEAN summit tackled important issues and “leaders of the different countries recognized the truth that the problem of one was the problem of all and that solutions could be arrived at if they all helped each other.”

Aside from the need for a collective response to calamities and accidents, “there is also the problem of pirates in the sea that we are raising because Filipino seamen make up 25 percent of seafarers in the world,” he said in Filipino.

He said ASEAN leaders also shared the country’s concern for overseas Filipino workers.

Mr. Aquino said he also brought up the issue of the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

“We told them that the first step that we needed to do was to make it clear that there were territories that were ours and ours only, but we are open to discussions on how we can make use of territories that are now under dispute,” the President said, referring to the Spratlys claims of China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia.

President Aquino also said he wanted to report that the country played an important role in the ASEAN summit.

We can provide help

“If before we were one of the countries benefiting from the help of our neighbors, now we are being recognized as one of those that can provide help,” the Chief Executive said, citing Indonesia’s interest in the fuel subsidy now being implemented by the Aquino administration for tricycle and jeepney drivers to help them cope with high oil prices.

The Philippines had also promised Cambodia and Laos that it would study their invitations to invest in agriculture and tourism in those countries.

Bad reviews

President Aquino on Sunday chaired the 7th summit for the development of an East Asian Growth Area (EAGA), encompassing parts of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Philippines.

The ASEAN summit, however, got generally bad reviews from international media.

The meeting, reported the New York Times News Service, ended on Sunday “with two significant issues unresolved, which led some analysts to question the leaders’ ability to confront entrenched problems.”

The ASEAN meeting, it said, failed to make progress in resolving the deadly border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, and also left open the question of whether Burma (Myanmar) would assume the organization’s rotating chairmanship in 2014.
Cracks showing

Agence France Presse reported that while the summit aimed to enhance regional unity, “the cracks began to show.”

“Minutes into the meeting on Saturday at Jakarta’s swanky convention center, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen launched into a tirade against Thailand over a border conflict which has cost 18 lives since February.

“The row hijacked the ASEAN summit and fueled concern that such distractions were hurting the credibility of the groups’s plans to create a fully integrated community by 2015,” AFP reported.

“When you have a feud in the family, especially when fighting can be heard outside the house, it is very embarrassing to the neighbors,” a regional diplomat told AFP.

On Burma’s coming chairmanship, NYTNS said civic groups and some elected officials in the region had criticized the proposal. Human Rights Watch said last week that a chairmanship for Burma would reduce the regional bloc to “the laughingstock of intergovernmental forums,” reported NYTNS. With reports from NYTNS, Agence France-Presse