Asean meeting gives DU30 a presidential face!

Kudos to President Rodrigo Duterte for successfully hosting the ASEAN 50 Summit that has brought the top leaders of the free world to the Philippines. The ASEAN leaders who are here are led by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

ASEAN’s Dialogue partners are also here, beginning with US President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who has captured the hearts of Filipinos when he went to have a takeout in Jollibee), Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, China’s Premier Li Keqiang, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Council President Donald Tusk, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and South Korean President Moon Jae-In.

If I’m congratulating Pres. Duterte today, it is because finally he did not only look Presidential; he sounded Presidential, making speeches without his usual joking and cursing. This only disproves people who say that you cannot teach an old dog a new trick! The attendance of world leaders at the ASEAN Summit in Manila is proof that despite all the negatives and brickbats thrown against Pres. Duterte (often by our own Filipino politicians and citizens), the world leaders hold him in high regard and respect.

After all, ASEAN and our Dialogue partners have a shared and common interests and face the reality that a strategic cooperation is needed by all nations, in the economy, the issue of migrant workers, the drug problem and the issue of terrorism. I’m glad that when Pres. Duterte formally opened the 31st ASEAN Summit at the Cultural Center yesterday, he began his speech talking about the terrorism that fell upon the City of Marawi in a five-month siege that left the city in total ruins.

Pres. Duterte in his opening speech said, “Your majesty, your excellencies, l apologize for setting the tone of my statement in such a manner but I only want to emphasize that our meetings in the next two days present an excellent opportunity for us to engage in meaningful discussions on matters of regional and international importance.”

Pres. Duterte was right on the nail when he identified terrorism and violent extremism as threats that know “no boundaries.” He also stated, “The menace of illegal drug trade continues to endanger the very fabric of our society.” I dare say that this statement was a bit unexpected especially in the light that the foes of Pres. Duterte are demanding that the extra judicial killings (EJK) be made an important issue in the ASEAN Summit.

As far as the EJK issue is concerned…one major factor why this is happening in the Philippines is the reality that we have a snail’s paced justice system. When two warring parties go to court and one party ends up paying so much for his lawyers’ fees, it is tempting to secure a gun-for-hire to end the conflict once and for all. But technically while this is an example of EJK, the issue pinned on the Duterte administration is the EJK that involves the police, which in my book has not reached even 4,000 in number. But then other news sources who want to discredit Pres. Duterte collate all killings in the Philippines as EJK, which is totally untrue!

But in truth the Philippines is not alone on the issue of human rights. Our ASEAN neighbors have their own human rights issues, notably Myanmar which still has the Rohingya problem which until now remains unresolved. But then I have attended two ASEAN meetings, one in Cebu and the other in Hua Hin, Thailand and embarrassing issues like human rights often take a back seat in those Summit meetings. After all, there are far more pressing issues that need to be addressed.

Perhaps the most pressing is the issue of North Korea under Kim Jong-Un who has been firing ballistic missiles over Japan and near Guam. Indeed, if China doesn’t help in stopping North Korea and to denuclearize it, then we certainly will see the day when either the North Koreans or the US would do a pre-emptive strike at each other. If in this meeting ASEAN can’t find a common ground on what to do with North Korea then we are opening to a unilateral action by either the North Koreans or the Americans.

Hopefully, ASEAN during this meeting would also solve the issue of China’s militarization of the South China Sea when it reclaimed small islands in the disputed territories and put in place a Naval base which is a serious concern to all ASEAN members, not just the Philippines.

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