Role for the Philippines

a north-south alignment by the three largest archipelagic States, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Carrying more than half of the world’s maritime trade, the seas of ASEAN regional common heritage that must be nurtured and managed comprehensively and seamlessly through joint cooperation among the States concerned as well as extra-regional interested States.

The incorporation of the archipelagic doctrine in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was a hard-won success for the Philippines. UNCLOS consequently is the linchpin and underpinning of the archipelagic state. But UNCLOS leaves to its State Parties a lot of work, including the legal regime implementing its provisions. The ASEAN for instance can collectively work on and arrive at a common navigation in archipelagic waters otherwise known as the right of archipelagic sealanes passage.

It is time the issues and concerns of ocean governance and maritime security in ASEAN take off from the talk-shop level and be translated into and projects. In this regard, PAFI proposes that the Philippines pursue as Zone Management to benefit the coastal areas of maritime Asia particularly in the revival of the coasts and coastal waters as sources of food and livelihood and in the mitigation of the effects of natural disasters.

PAFI hopes that ASEAN will step up maritime cooperation in its Dialogue Partner arrangements and its relationships with the United Nations system and other international organizations. The Philippines should reiterate its 1996 invitation to the International Maritime Organization to establish a Regional Of

The spirit of “open regionalism” trending in regional organizations may already be discerned in ASEAN Dialogue Partner arrangements. PAFI supports ASEAN approving in this spirit the applications for membership of Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka, countries potentially making an important contribution to regional oceans governance and maritime security.

In approaching issues of regional oceans governance and maritime secu as obtaining in the Spratlys archipelago, PAFI supports the revival of the sociocultural norms originating from the ancient “musyawarah” (consultations) and “mufakat” (consensus). These are values articulated in the Bandung Declaration of 1955 and given a modern manifestation in the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Their practice is in keeping with the ASEAN vision of “a community that is aware and proud of its identity, culture and heritage with the strengthened ability to innovate and proactively contribute to the global community.”

The Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Inc.intends to be proactive in conveying inputs to the Philippine Government to help frame national interests for projection in the Philippines’ hosting of ASEAN in 2017. It plans to produce a series of articles on various aspects of ASEAN and relevant core national interests in line with the Philippines’ pursuit of an independent foreign policy that is ASEAN-centered and oriented to the