JDV extols Asean-AIPO links

CEBU CITY – For the first time in 27 years, ASEAN and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) have agreed to conduct regular consultation meetings in support of the vision of transforming Southeast Asia into one caring and sharing community," Speaker Jose de Venecia told the opening of the AIPO 27th General Assembly yesterday.

He told some 300 parliamentary heads and delegates that AIPO has reached a "breakthrough year" and will play a crucial role in realizing the ASEAN’s dream of unifying the whole of region politically, economically, and culturally.

De Venecia, the AIPO president, said only AIPO can provide the parliamentary and constituency support for this regional vision of its mother organization.

"It is our burden-—and our glory—to lay the foundations on which these communal structures are to be erected, so that we can then turn without distraction to the work of delivering our people at last from their bondage to poverty, ignorance and ill-health," he said.

De Venecia’s speech opened the five-day assembly.

President Arroyo addressed the delegates in a video-taped message where she stressed ASEAN’s central role to peace and order, political and social stability and a growing economy in each of our respective countries.

Ms. Arroyo congratulated de Venecia and the House of Representatives for organizing the assembly which was also attended by Vice-President Noli de Castro and Senate President Manuel Villar. Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar and Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the organizing committee, who led the Philippine delegation.

In her address, President Arroyo said the 12th ASEAN Summit, which is scheduled in Cebu City in December, has put emphasis on the ideals of a regional community which the Philippines is pursuing to become the norm in ASEAN.

"Our vision is for ASEAN to grow as a community that values the common good of the region, one that truly cares for the welfare of its people and its environment, and one that selflessly shares its resources for the benefit of all," the President said.

She said during the Philippine leadership of the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit, Manila will seek closer cooperation among member nations in energy, security, counter-terrorism, the welfare and protection of migrant workers, and the formation of an ASEAN Charter.

She also urged ASEAN member countries to accede to the agreement on information exchange on counterterrorism, and to ratify the agreement on disaster management and emergency response in the face of natural calamities that regularly visit the Southeast Asian region.

De Venecia said the ASEAN leaders would receive the AIPO president at their annual summit, and in turn the AIPO would invite the summit chairman to address its annual assembly.

"Now. ASEAN’s highest leaders are reaching out to AIPO for active consultations and assistance," he said.

De Venecia urged cooperation between ASEAN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to bolster regional efforts to counter terrorism and stem the flow of extremist toward Southeast Asia from the "heartlands of jihad."

He sought the support for the creation of an Interfaith Council in the United Nations system, a Philippine proposal he has espoused, to "coordinate the interfaith dialogues the UN has approved and started to organize."

De Venecia told the assembly his debt-for-equity program has won support from the G-77 nations including China, and 90 political parties from 36 nations that attended the recently concluded 4th International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Seoul.

The program would help deeply indebted nations to finance anti-poverty programs under the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, chief of which is to cut poverty in half by the year 2015.

De Venecia said the creation of the Standby ASEAN Disaster Relief Fund would help finance the relief, rescue and reconstruction efforts in the wake of natural disasters in the region.

He said AIPO has made progress in its efforts to convert itself into the ASEAN Parliamentary Council or an ASEAN Parliamentary Union, which he described as the beginnings of an ASEAN Parliament.