Remarks of

HON. PERFECTO R. YASAY, JR.

Welcome Dinner of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting Retreat (AMM Retreat)

Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan, Philippines

Excellencies,

Colleagues in Government,

Dear Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening and welcome to the amazing island of Boracay!

This piece of glory – with a land area of only a little more than 10 square kilometers – is obviously not as large as the other famed beach islands we know.

Yet we understand that many beautiful things come in small packages! Indeed, Boracay may be small but, it continues to amaze the world.

Many times, the magnificent white beach of Boracay has been cited as the world’s best. All day through, even at noon time, you can walk barefoot on its cool powdered sugar-like sand. Before dusk, the once blazing sun slowly disappears in the horizon with its soft variegated colors. It is not what happens outside that’s so wondrous. It’s what is inside you. You are in accord with such creation of beauty as you suddenly see the world with a different eye. And before darkness engulfs the horizon one sees the clear line where Heaven harmoniously meets the Earth.

My dear friends, we are here for the year’s first major ASEAN meeting with the Philippines as we serve our role as the ASEAN Chair and as ASEAN celebrate its golden anniversary. Tomorrow, we - the ASEAN Foreign Ministers - meet for our Retreat in this dazzling paradise.

We are meeting just when our region and the rest of the world are experiencing unprecedented political, economic, social, and even climatic changes. All these require distinct policy directions that will shape the course of ASEAN and the future of Asia.

Extremism – finding expression in vicious violence -- continues to defy effective and long-term solutions despite national and multilateral efforts to address the problem.

Many countries continue to experience slow, lackluster growth that worsens the economic marginalization of significant sectors of the population.

Reports on irregular movement of people in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East are still bannered in newspaper headlines. Severe weather disturbances have become almost a daily fare. 

It is against this backdrop that we are to meet and plan the next steps that ASEAN must take as it forges ahead in its community building efforts.

It is no longer business-as-usual. We need to review long-held strategies that are no longer effective.

And yet, whatever it is that we do, we must safeguard and ensure ASEAN’s centrality and solidarity in all matters related to its political and economic destiny in pursuing and enjoying peace, justice, and progress.

Above all, as a region with 625 million of our citizens, we must make sure that as a “People-Oriented and People-Centered” Community, ASEAN leaves no one behind.

Our destiny is written in our geography. As it is said that wisdom sits in places, let me share with you something about Boracay, which is part of the province of Aklan, in the Visayas region.

Here in Boracay, we are surrounded by the seas, which have connected our peoples and the region for centuries.

Yearly celebrated in Aklan is the Ati-Atihan, a colorful and lively festival – when we recall the story of ten datus who arrived on the islands more than 800 years ago. The festival celebrates the friendship and partnership forged among the new settlers with the local people. These datus sailed here on their boats called “Balangay”, which have become the “Barangay”, the term we use to refer to the smallest political unit under our present government system.

We are here in what we in the Philippines know as the Visayas – a name derived from the seventh century Sri Vijaya Empire based in South East Asia.

Our past as a region speaks of our peoples, drawn ever closer together by a sense of deep kinship and community that is at the heart of all our concerns. That should be analogous to the sense of centrality and solidarity of ASEAN.

On this note, I wish to thank everyone -- from the national and local government officials -- particularly from Boracay, the Province of Aklan, and the Western Visayas Region, for the great lengths they have gone to make our visit to the island truly memorable and joyful. Now, it is up to us to ensure that our Retreat tomorrow, will be most productive – to benefit the peoples of ASEAN.

And so, let us all enjoy our dinner as we celebrate the golden anniversary of our deep sense of kinship and community as ASEAN.

With all these said, I wish to offer a toast –

• For our continued good health and happiness,
• For the success of our Retreat tomorrow, and
• To ASEAN: for another 50 years of mutual trust and support, unity and strength, for our ASEAN Community and the peoples of ASEAN.

Thank you and Mabuhay!