We are victims of our own political chaos

By all accounts, the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu under the leadership of President Marcos Jr. was a considerable success. Several diplomats even privately remarked that it was by far among the most substantive ASEAN meetings in recent years – not because of grandstanding or dramatic announcements, but because the discussions focused on urgent and practical concerns affecting the nearly 700 million population across the Southeast Asian region.

The summit focused heavily on urgent priorities that include regional energy security, food security and protection of ASEAN nationals abroad – issues that directly affect ordinary families, and not abstract diplomatic concepts. The summit’s theme of “Navigating Our Future, Together” is certainly reflective of the prevailing mood among leaders that no ASEAN nation can face the current geopolitical and economic turbulence alone.

Unfortunately, the success of the ASEAN Summit in Cebu has been marred by the chaos in the Philippine Senate last Wednesday where multiple gunshots were fired, with members of the media seen scrambling for cover. So much publicity has come out over the episode, with international news agencies from the UK to France to as far as Kenya and Ghana dubbing it as a “standoff.”

Here in the United States, coverage has been extensive from major networks such as ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir reporting from Beijing and Top Story with Tom Llamas of NBC News. Time magazine’s headline read “Gunshots, mayhem in Philippine Senate: What to know about the senator at the center of the chaos,” with the Washington Post, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and other media organizations also putting out their own reports with similar headlines.

An initial suspect has been identified and concerned authorities are working together to get to the bottom of the whole incident, so we are hoping that the confusion can be sorted out soon because there are so many positive developments that are happening, especially on the economic front. For instance, our participation in the Pax Silica initiative that would establish a 1,619-hectare (40,000-acre) economic security zone (ESZ) in the Luzon Economic Corridor, specifically in New Clark City, that is expected to boost the country’s economic growth.

The Philippines joined the Pax Silica initiative last month following the meetings we arranged between the Philippine delegation led by Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments head Perry Rodolfo with US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. The Philippines is the 13th signatory to Pax Silica and, aside from Singapore, is the only other ASEAN country to join the US-led initiative that will help us secure our place in building the industries of the future such as AI, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing, where global innovation and resilient supply chains create higher value for the Philippines and its partners.

The ESZ will serve as a high value industrialization and technology hub that would elevate the country from low-value assembly to high-value manufacturing for semiconductors, electronics and artificial intelligence technology that would advance innovation, attract more foreign investments and create thousands of jobs, especially for those in the IT and engineering sectors.

The Luzon Economic Corridor – a flagship initiative of the Philippines, United States and Japan – will link Subic, Clark, Manila and Batangas to serve as a backbone for infrastructure, investment and supply chain resilience. Just a few days ago, the trilateral partnership issued a joint statement that seven global powers – Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom – have joined the LEC initiative, bringing with them technical and financial resources and capabilities as well as investment capacity that would go a long way in accelerating and broadening the strategic impact of the LEC. This most recent development underscores the growing significance of the LEC to like-minded nations who see the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The visit to Manila of a US delegation led by State Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg (together with Ambassador Heather Variava, who serves as Senior Adviser for Economic Affairs, as well as private sector representative and Foxconn chairman and president Young Liu) is very timely as they will be discussing further opportunities for major investments.

Undersecretary Helberg is the founder of The Hill & Valley Forum, a bipartisan coalition of executives from Silicon Valley and US lawmakers, and which has been a major force in bridging the knowledge gap between Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. He also served as Google’s global lead for Search policy and was part of the founding team at GeoQuant, an AI-driven technology company that was acquired by the Fitch Group in 2022.

Headquartered in Taiwan, Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai Technology Group) is the world’s top manufacturer of AI servers and is a major assembler of electronics for Apple, Nvidia and other global tech companies. Foxconn’s chairman and president Young Liu, who has a BS in Electrophysics and an MS in Computer Engineering, is a highly accomplished tech entrepreneur and engineer. We are hoping he will see President Marcos during the bilateral meetings arranged by the US embassy and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

With the spiraling prices of oil and basic commodities due to the situation in the Middle East, we must avoid the impression of chaos that has generated negative publicity in the international community. It is obvious that this kind of publicity is the last thing we need.

Our ASEAN neighbors and the rest of the world are facing challenges, too, but they seem to be handling their situation much better. Clearly, we must get our act together because the Filipino people deserve nothing less.

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