ASEAN chairmanship yields West PHL Sea, labor pacts

The adoption of a framework for a Code of Conduct in the disputed South China Sea and a migrant workers' protection pact highlighted the Philippines' year-long stewardship of the ASEAN, the diverse 10-nation bloc which marked its 50th founding anniversary this year.

After years of sharp divisions over the territorial disputes, which involve four ASEAN member states, tensions over the issue at the regional bloc's summit meetings in the Philippines have eased largely because of President Rodrigo Duterte's rapprochement to China, the most aggressive among the claimants.

To foster friendlier ties with Beijing, Duterte did not immediately demand Chinese compliance to a landmark arbitration victory in the South China Sea disputes.  But his gambit has come under fire from nationalists and left-wing groups.

They warned that the concession was allowing China to press an aggressive assertion of its territorial claims in defiance of international laws.

Duterte assumed ASEAN's rotational leadership this year, thrusting him to the international stage early in his presidency and providing him with a regional platform to highlight the urgency of battling illegal drugs, although his campaign has generated much controversy at home.

Terrorism reemerged as a top regional concern midway through the Philippines' chairmanship of ASEAN as hundreds of pro-Islamic State group militants occupied swathes of Marawi City in May.

That has prompted member countries to work urgently towards closer cooperation in fighting the rise of Islamic radicalism.

With tactical and equipment support from the US, China, Russia and Australia, the siege of Marawi ended in October after five months of heavy fighting.

Code of Conduct

Under Duterte's chairmanship of the ASEAN, China finally relented to move toward negotiations with and craft a Code of Conduct in the disputed waters by finalizing a framework, which will serve as basis for future talks.

While the development has been welcomed as a long-delayed progress, critics have also hit ASEAN for caving in to China's position by not clearly stating that the code should be legally binding and include discussions on China's controversial island-making and other aggressive acts in the resource-rich waters.

ASEAN leaders and China are expected to jointly declare the official start of negotiations on the code of conduct when they meet in Manila for the final leg of the 2017 ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings.

Calls for an early conclusion of such a code heightened in recent years due to a series of confrontations between China and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with overlapping territorial claims, especially Vietnam and the Philippines. Other claimants include Brunei, Malaysia, and non-ASEAN member Taiwan.

Professor Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs, said he sees a “protracted and contentious” process in terms of finalizing a regional code of conduct.

“Unless parties are clear on what they want to do with it, what they want to achieve before they talk to China, it will not move,” he said.

The ASEAN has long held the position that the Code of Conduct must be legally binding, but China opposes this. It's not clear how this fundamental difference will affect the progress and the pace of future talks on the code.

Dr. Christopher Roberts, associate professor of International and Political Studies at the University of New South Wales, believes that finalizing a code of conduct in a year or two is “highly questionable.”

“Even if a code of conduct does take place, if at all, would that not basically consolidate the status quo which is now in China’s favor?” he said.

“It may help in terms of reducing the scope for inadvertent escalation of hostilities by having this code of conduct, but it is unlikely to do much in terms of reversing the gains that China has already obtained in the region,” Roberts said.

Migrant workers

The conclusion of an agreement on the protection of migrant workers' rights came after years of hushed but difficult negotiations among members of the regional bloc, which is comprised of countries that export labor like the Philippines and Indonesia and others which receive them, like Singapore and Malaysia.

The Philippines and Indonesia fought for a legally binding agreement and coverage of undocumented workers in earlier years but later relented to a non-binding pact. ASEAN leaders are expected to sign next week the ASEAN Consensus on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

The signing comes a year after the ASEAN adopted the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, which served as a springboard for the agreement.

As ASEAN evolves into a regional community with less barriers for the movement of trade and workers, such a pact has become more urgent, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar said.

"We are trying to build the ASEAN community and part of the building of that ASEAN community is of course, labor mobility. We really have to have a document which will ensure that the rights of our migrant workers will be protected within ASEAN," he said.

"All of us or most of the ASEAN are members of the various International Labor Organization conventions and the United Nations agreement on migrant workers, but yet we need to focus a bit more on the ASEAN situation and the conditions in the region," Bolivar added.

ASEAN states that export workers favor a legally binding instrument and insist on extending the scope of the agreement to undocumented migrant workers, but receiving states such as Singapore and Malaysia have blocked any attempt at such measures.

Overall, the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship has been handled like most others in the past, almost on “auto-pilot,” with steady progress on long-running issues and initiatives, said Batongbacal.

The low side, however, was the government’s decision not to capitalize on its leadership position to gain leverage on the South China Sea disputes given its arbitration victory over China.

“It was competent, there were no massive failures, only a big disappointment when it came to the South China Sea,” Batongbacal said. “It was a missed opportunity.” — MDM/VDS, GMA News