The Philippines taking a lead role in peace-making, at least on a regional level, is good for our interest, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday night, underscoring his readiness to engage his counterparts in Southeast Asia to ensure peace and security.
Marcos made the remark during a question and answer session at a gathering organized by the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) in Pasay City, where he was asked if he wanted to be the leader in peace-making negotiations amid the current geopolitical tensions.
He said the Philippines has a vital role to play, particularly amid the Ukraine-Russia war, the US-China tension over Taiwan, and the recent missile testing by North Korea.
The President pointed out that if Russia uses tactical nuclear warheads against Ukraine and it becomes acceptable, it might encourage other nuclear powers to do the same, elevating the global uncertainty to a new level.
“So we have a very important part to play in that because we have a great interest. It must be a subject of central concern in our foreign policy and in the defense of the nation in the Philippines,” he told media personalities at the MOPC gathering.
The President further said: “So I do not think we have a choice. We must play a leadership role because it is in our interest. And if we do not do it, we are not doing our jobs as the protectors of our country, of our state, of our territory, of our people, if we do not take that leadership role.”
Regionally, Marcos suggested that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must be strengthened to make it more responsive to future challenges and to enable the regional bloc to do more than what it has accomplished so far.
“And in fact, in the upcoming ASEAN conferences that are coming up in November, I intend to propose several actions that ASEAN can take specific to the different conflicts that we are seeing in our region,” he said, stressing that if the Philippines can play a part, then that would be a good thing.
ASEAN member countries must present a united front, the chief executive said, noting it is the best way forward simply because of the moral suasion of several ASEAN members, which is more effective than just doing the negotiation bilaterally.
“I think we should continue to try and push our member neighbors to present that united front and to move that united front forward so that we can say that ASEAN, a geopolitical aggrupation, economic aggrupation, has certainly shown that it has a function to do in the normal scheme of the geopolitics,” he said. | PND
