Opening Remarks
of
TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
On the 52nd Anniversary of ASEAN
[Bulwagang Apolinario Mabini, 05 August 2019]
Excellencies;
Former Secretary Delia Albert
The Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries of the Department of Foreign Affairs;
Mrs Rowena Severino;
Mrs. Erlinda Uy-Koe;
Colleagues in the Department,
Guests and friends.
Good morning.
As the Philippines took its first steps towards nationhood, our first Foreign Affairs Secretary Apolinario Mabini led this department with a mind made sharper and a vision made brighter for his physical disability. We must imagine that he was moved as much by love of a country not yet his, as he believed strongly that those disabled or shackled by body or circumstance must be free of them to be all that they can be. Disability compensates and tends to excellence. This belief drives ASEAN Community-building.
ASEAN Community 2015 was established to achieve a community of opportunities through economic and cultural development, social progress, regional peace and security, collaboration and mutual assistance, and improvement in living standards[1]. But ASEAN’s desire for integration in its best aspects is not an event but a work in progress to realize the political security, economic and socio-cultural spheres.
The ASEAN Community Vision 2015-2025 was developed to support the ASEAN Community 2015, to build an ASEAN Community where our peoples fundamental freedoms—first and foremost freedom from fear, a higher quality of life, and the benefits of community, reinforcing our sense of togetherness and shared identity even in our diversity; guided by the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter.[2] In short, a people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN.
The ASEAN Enabling Masterplan 2025: Mainstreaming the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was launched on November 15, 2018—one year ago on my birthday. I don’t know if that means anything but I like to think that it means that we all suffer from disabilities and that worst kind are those we impose on ourselves in a too limited sense of our possibilities.
Since ASEAN’s founding in 1967, ASEAN charted a course for the region with great will and purpose. We are honored to have the family of Ambassador Rodolfo Severino here to accept the Order of Lakandula, Rank of Supremo, for his stewardship of ASEAN during his tenure as Secretary-General.
Fifty-two years since its establishment, the world is paying attention. ASEAN has become a stable regional grouping, and boasts of a population of 642 million people, and a single market and production base with a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion[3].
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, cognizant of the important role of ASEAN as a cornerstone of Philippine foreign policy, said that “ASEAN was and remains foundational to our quest for a peaceful and prosperous region.”[4]
As we near the halfway mark of ASEAN Community Vision 2025, ASEAN is preparing for the review of the progress that the three Community pillars have made since 2015. At this point, I would like to acknowledge the presence of former ASEAN Directors General, Assistant Secretaries and Permanent Representatives.
It is these men and women who made sure that the Philippines would grow with ASEAN and make sure that Filipinos would reap the benefits of its membership to the regional grouping.
As part of our commemoration, we present a week-long exhibit entitled “No One Left Behind”. It shines the light on ASEAN’s contributions in ensuring that the rights of persons under disabilities of mind or body are respected; and opportunities are provided for our peoples to realize their potential.
We are proud to say that 1.46% of the DFA workforce are Persons with Disabilities, in with the Act Expanding The Positions Reserved For Persons With Disability, which mandates that at least one percent of all positions in all government agencies, offices or corporations should be reserved for PWDs.
There is no better place to hold this commemoration than the Bulwagang Apolinario Mabini, named after whose limitations did not keep him from making exceptional contributions to his country.
I just came from the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting. I was deeply impressed by the learning and the tact displayed there. Interventions ranged from the highly inflammatory to the magisterially broad-ranging but they were never boring or uninstructive. We talked about the South China, terrorism, geopolitical strategy, the perdurability of China’s progress and preeminent presence in Southeast and Northeast Asia if not beyond, to the permanence of American power everywhere to ensure a healthy balance of power in the world. I said that no government will stand for long in the face of the outrage of their publics should they ever surrender an inch of what they believe to be territorially theirs—as much China’s as the Philippines and Vietnam and all the other countries. To this my good friend Vivian Balakrishnan topped it all with his vision of ASEAN twenty years hence where none of the claims today are settled but where nothing stands in the way of a limitless progress, prosperity and I dare say peace. Thank you.
[1] ASEAN Community 2015
[2] ASEAN Community Vision 2025
[3] ASEAN Economic Integration Brief No. 4, November 2018
[4] Speech given by President Rodrigo R. Duterte at the Nikkei International Conference on the Future of Asia