One day after the launching of the government’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Davao City, more than 100 members of the newly-formed national organizing committee of the 2017 Asean Civil Society Conference/Asean People’s Forum (ACSC/APF 2017) trooped to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila.

The civil society network engaging Asean delivered to the government its collective statement reflecting people’s aspirations for Asean.

The statement was received by Assistant Secretary Hellen de la Vega during a brief dialog at the DFA.

Civil society organizations representing various sectors in the Philippines united under the NOC of the ACSC/APF2017 to amplify grassroots people’s voices in asserting human rights, democratization, and economic, social and ecological justice in order to realize a just, equitable, and humane Philippines and Southeast Asia.

“As chair and host of Asean 2017, the Philippines is faced with a unique opportunity to chart a new and more relevant course for the 50-year-old regional organization that will truly benefit its peoples. This entails meeting the challenge of addressing concerns and inadequacies that have hobbled Asean since its inception in 1967,” said Dr. Eduardo Tadem - ACSC/APF 2017 Philippine NOC co-convener and Freedom from Debt Coalition president.

Tadem, also a professor on Asian studies at the University of the Philippines, enumerated at least nine important issues that the Asean must tackle to make it more relevant.

These are: (1) lack of popular participation in Asean decision-making; (2) rising inequalities between and among member countries; (3) weakening democracies and prevalence of authoritarian governing modes resulting in human rights deficits; (4) dominance of an elite-centered development strategy and the resulting failure to attain inclusive growth; (5) competition rather than complementarity in trade and investment relations; (6) absence of sanctions against rogue regimes; (7) lack of a regional identity and unity; (8) weak social protection for all residents; and (9) prevalence of gender inequalities.

“Asean under the leadership of the Philippines must meet these major challenges head-on and take the decisive step of transforming Asean into a true people-oriented and people-centered regional organization,” said Tadem.

He added that the ACSC/APF 2017 comprised of hundreds of people’s organizations and social movements across the region, enjoins the administration of President Duterte to heed this

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