On PNoy's Speech (ASEAN)

"Philippine foreign policy decisions have to be made in the context of ASEAN"

ASEAN is part of the 8 Philippine foreign policy realities, it is that important to our country. President Noy's statement about his plans for the organization then has a big impact on our country's future, if it will be implemented.

The president's speech about ASEAN is very general. He stated things about the importance of our country's relationship with the international community specifically when it comes to the economic aspect as he mentioned investments in the first part of his speech. He mentioned general benefits of having good relations with other countries.

As of action plan during his term, he mentioned about being a "good neighbor, a productive partner and a consensus-builder." All of these are very general. He did not define what a good neighbor or productive partner is meaning there are actually no concrete plans in his speech.

For me, it is good that he has mentioned of the transition in ASEAN. It makes us realize that the ASEAN responsibility today is different from before. Therefore a new challenge. Today's responsibility demands a lot of negotiations and proper implementation.

It is also important that he reiterated the goal of ASEAN by 2015. At least the direction of ASEAN is clear for this administration. He mentioned plans about the three key pillars but then again it was very general. There were no specific or concrete plans mentioned except for the translation of the ASEAN charter to Filipino and disseminating it to the schools. Although this is one way to make the Filipino citizens aware of our Philippine relations, I don't see this step as a priority. Although very general, I think it is important that he has plans for each of the pillar.

To conclude the speech, I can say that this is actually a dream. It is full of promises and good things. It seems like the Philippines will not have a hard time dealing with ASEAN and its goals. Yes, this is very ideal and optimistic, it is just that he was not able to mention the possible considerations and the concrete plans to achieve the goals.