Hosting the ASEAN Summit and Related Summits this year should strengthen efforts in the Philippines to put its house in order and deliver honest and efficient governance.
Each time the Philippines gets the rotating chairship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it seems the country has fallen farther behind its regional peers, particularly the four other ASEAN founding members, in terms of many development indicators.
Until about half a century ago, the Philippines was second only to Japan in terms of development in East and Southeast Asia. The Philippines at the time was a favored destination for quality education, cultural immersion, leisure travel and investments.
The country was attractive enough to win the bidding to host the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank in 1965, edging out competing cities including Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Today all those cities – and their countries – have surpassed Manila and the rest of the Philippines in terms of many economic and human development indicators.
The Philippines is hosting the ASEAN summit amid fears that the country is turning into the sick man of Asia, hit hard by the Middle East conflict, bracing for a “super” El Niño, and the most vulnerable in the world to natural disasters.
These external factors are on top of the internal problems that have long plagued the nation, starting with corruption, which President Marcos likened a year ago to a “cancer” requiring “major surgery” to excise.
A shame campaign and anti-corruption crackdown launched by the President last year exposed the pervasiveness of the systemic rot and the looting of public funds that was institutionalized in the budget process.
Several key personalities have since been indicted, arrested and detained, but the 2027 budget bill passed by the House of Representatives indicates that it’s business as usual in the chamber.
Unless budget priorities are corrected and looters of people’s money are punished, that promised major surgery won’t stop the cancer from spreading and turning the country into Asia’s basket case.
Hosting the ASEAN summit should firm up the national resolve to pursue sustainable structural reforms that will stop the Philippines from becoming the sick man of the region.