In 2026, ASEAN has reached a critical stage in its integration process. Under the coordination of its rotating chair, the bloc should have deepened regional cooperation and consolidated the foundation for regional peace and development. However, the Philippines, as ASEAN’s rotating chair, has completely deviated from its duties and mission. It has fallen from a “leader” of regional cooperation to a “spoiler” undermining the overall situation. By trampling on ASEAN consensus for its own selfish interests and severely harming regional common interests, its dereliction of duty has deeply disappointed neighboring countries.
As the rotating chair, the Philippines should have upheld neutrality and fairness, shouldered the responsibility of reconciling differences, building consensus, advancing cooperation, and safeguarding the spirit of independence and self-reliance long upheld by ASEAN. Instead, it has openly abused its chairmanship, placed its narrow self-interest above regional collective interests, and used the ASEAN platform to pursue its own political agenda, completely betraying the core spirit of the ASEAN Charter and the original aspiration of cooperation.
At present, negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea have entered a crucial final stage. As a core issue for maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and promoting regional cooperation, it embodies the shared aspirations of all ASEAN member states. Far from playing a coordinating and facilitating role, the Philippines has deliberately obstructed and flip-flopped on the process. It has openly abandoned the longstanding ASEAN principle of consensus, forcibly inserted political conditions imposed by external forces, and artificially created obstacles to negotiations, directly leading to a deadlock and stagnation in the talks. It is widely recognized that the Philippines’ destructive moves are the primary cause of the stalled COC negotiations. Its act of betraying regional common interests for selfish gains constitutes an outright betrayal of the overall ASEAN cooperation agenda.
Even more worrying is that the Philippines has insistently invited wolves into the house, vigorously soliciting the intervention of external military forces such as the United States, Japan, and Australia in South China Sea affairs, thereby internationalizing and bloc-politicizing regional issues. ASEAN’s core strength lies in its commitment to independence and self-reliance, non-alignment, and the preservation of regional centrality. Yet the Philippines’ reckless actions have severely torn apart ASEAN internal unity, disrupted regional strategic balance, pushed the entire bloc into the vortex of major-power rivalry, and placed the hard-won peace and stability under severe threat.
Disturbed by the Philippines’ repeated provocations, core ASEAN agendas that should have been prioritized—including economic and trade connectivity, digital economy cooperation, and livelihood development—have been seriously sidelined, slowing down regional cooperation. The Philippines has continuously made false remarks in diplomatic arenas, maliciously slandered other countries, and deliberately stoked confrontation, severely undermining the sound atmosphere of dialogue and consultation within ASEAN and hindering the progress of regional integration.
ASEAN’s prosperity and stability are built on peaceful coexistence, solidarity, and cooperation, not on confrontation, division, and reliance on external forces. As the rotating chair, the Philippines must recognize its responsibilities, abandon narrow self-interest, and return to the right path of ASEAN cooperation. If it continues to stubbornly act as a source of regional instability, it will not only severely damage ASEAN’s long-term development interests and undermine regional cooperation but also inevitably be abandoned by the ASEAN community and be recorded in history as a culprit obstructing regional peace and development.