Thursday, August 28, 2008
Legislators in Asean to push for concerns of civil society: del Mar
CIVIL society concerns will be raised to an integrated Asean region through the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (Aipa), Deputy House Speaker Raul del Mar said yesterday, responding to fears earlier raised by Cebu-based people’s organizations in a forum.
The assembly, which gathered in Singapore late last week, is composed of lawmakers from all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) member-states and is tasked to advance the Asean agenda of regional economic integration in the legislative departments of each member country.
“Aipa and Asean both believe in the thrust to make the region more people-oriented,” del Mar said, “it will push for reforms that will grant the ordinary Asean citizen more participation in the decision-making process of our respective governments.”
Representatives
Civil society can engage Aipa through their congressional representative.
Del Mar, the congressional representative from Cebu City’s north district, was among 15 Philippine legislators, including two other Cebuano lawmakers, who attended the Singapore assembly.
He stood as the head of the country’s delegation during the committee meetings held as part of the gathering.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles of Davao City was the official head of the Philippine delegation and was present during the opening ceremony but had to leave early.
Cause-oriented groups in Cebu, in a forum held three days before the Singapore meeting opened last Aug. 22, aired their dismay over the lack of civil society participation in Asean affairs.
Consultation
A case in point, they said, is the lack of public consultation on the drafting of the Asean charter and corresponding Asean economic, socio cultural and political blueprints.
“What we do not like was the process (the Asean charter) was drafted and... ratified,” said Jenina Joy Chavez of the Focus on the Global South, one of the forum’s organizers.
“The Charter drafting had been kept away from public access and scrutiny, making difficult any engagement in the process,” the Solidarity for Asean People’s Advocacies said in a separate statement released yesterday.
“The Charter is a disappointment. It is a document that falls short of what is needed to establish a ‘people-centered’ and ‘people-empowered’ Asean,” it said.
It argued that while Asean has succeeded in codifying past agreements and consolidating the legal framework that would later define it, Asean “fails to put people at the center, much less empower them.”
Still, del Mar views the regional grouping positively, adding that Asean has its own mechanisms, like Aipa.
Inside Aipa, he said, there is a very strong move for such concepts as the “promotion and protection for human rights, particularly of women, children and migrant workers who are often marginalized even in a globalized environment.”
“In the economic pillar,” he said, “we stressed the need to address pressing issues of the day including the rising cost of fuel and food prices and rallied support for the production and mass utilization of renewable and alternative sources of energy from suitable and sustainable local resource.” (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 28, 2008 issue)
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