The Development Academy of the Philippines launched the book entitled “ASEAN Integration: Status, Issues, and Prospects” at the O.D. Corpuz Hall last January 26, during which Dr. Orlando Mercado, an eminent fellow of the DAP, thanked the Academy for taking the initiative to come up with a book on the integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Mercado expressed his gratitude to the Academy as he cited the need for Filipinos to understand how change is being managed in the region.
“I thank the DAP for instigating this project. It’s a challenge for five people writing a book as you have to have synergy to come up with a theme and a direction,” Mercado said. “Regional integration is not an easy phenomenon to manage. This is because change requires movement, movement results in friction, friction causes pain, and changes can’t happen without pain.”
Insulating people from pain
The former Senator said that the major concern therefore is how to “insulate our people from pain” with the changes that are happening, and he said the only way this can happen is if they have the necessary information for understanding the changes taking place around them.
He said the book tries to address this need. “We hope to stimulate a debate on the book,” the well-known broadcaster said. “As I always tell my students, ‘your grade will depend on the number of times we debate.”
President Antonio Kalaw Jr., who welcomed the guests that included Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Hellen de la Vega, the US Embassy’s External Affairs Officer Neil Philipps and book author Jose Tabbada, on the other hand, said that the men who have worked on the book have been involved in talking and working on ASEAN integration, particularly Mercado, who in 2009 became the first permanent representative of the Philippines to the ASEAN in Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘A meeting of the minds’
“This book is a meeting of the minds among individuals of disparate minds,” Kalaw said. “The ASEAN is in fact the biggest meeting of the minds.”
This was seconded by Tabbada, who said the objective of the book is to introduce the ASEAN to the public and that the original idea was to come up with a seamless book, an idea that he said was later rendered impractical with five different authors of differing styles working on it.
“Even if you don’t like it, if it stimulates some debate, it would have served its purpose,” Tabbada told his audience.
De la Vega herself commended the DAP when she spoke of the project, thanking the “esteemed authors and fellows” who worked on the book.
“Personally as director of the ASEAN Secretariat, I’m very pleased with this project,” she said.
ASEAN citizens as well
De la Vega declared that Filipinos should no longer consider themselves just as Filipino citizens but as ASEAN citizens as well, calling on the audience to “be our partners” and to “all work together” while also working for “a rules-based ASEAN.”
“ASEAN Integration: Status, Issues, and Prospects,” which sells for P250 per copy, was co-authored by Mercado, Tabbada, M.C. Abad Jr., Filemon Uriarte Jr., Sapeda Bano and Executive Fellow Carlos Tabunda Jr., who was credited with helping conceptualize the book and bringing the different authors together.
Also coming to the book launching event were Malisa Mahamoud of the Malaysian Embassy, Consul Cham Guevarra of the Philippine Consulate in Vancouver, Canada, Atty. Tony Abad of the Trade Advisory Group, Edna Co of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, Atty. Ma. Anthonette Allones of the Career Executive Service Board, Arthur Luis Florentine of the Civil Service Institute, and Academy officials and personnel.