ASEAN Society Philippines

ASEAN Society Philippines Official page of the ASEAN Society in the Philippines. Be part of an advocacy that matters!

The ASEAN Society Philippines (ASP)

Founded in 207, ASP is a private sector-led organization that aims to support national efforts to ensure that the benefits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Integration are made known and reaped by every citizen. Our Mission:
We believe in ASEAN as a region of growth and development as embodied in its aspiration for One Vision, One Identity,

One Community. The ASEAN Society commits to raising awareness and promoting greater understanding among national entities across sectors, and through the Society’s activities, assist in the endeavor to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations.

In the Philippines, salamat means thank you.In Malaysia and Indonesia, selamat means safety and wellbeing — selamat pagi...
11/08/2026

In the Philippines, salamat means thank you.

In Malaysia and Indonesia, selamat means safety and wellbeing — selamat pagi, selamat jalan, selamat ulang tahun.

They come from the same place. The Arabic salāmāt is the plural of salāmah: good health, wellbeing, safety. It did not arrive here directly from Arabia. It travelled through Malay, the language of trade in our seas, before it settled on our tongues.

In Malay the original sense survived. In Filipino, the meaning drifted toward gratitude instead.

This is how language moves. A word passes through a port, changes what it means, and centuries later feels as though it had been ours from the beginning.

Sources:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salamat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Tagalog

A very happy birthday to ASP’s Chair, Amb. Delia Albert!
11/08/2026

A very happy birthday to ASP’s Chair, Amb. Delia Albert!

Two days until ASEAN Day.There are eleven of us now — Timor-Leste acceded on 26 October 2025. Eleven countries, and well...
06/08/2026

Two days until ASEAN Day.

There are eleven of us now — Timor-Leste acceded on 26 October 2025. Eleven countries, and well over a thousand languages between them.

Some of them are close cousins. The terima kasih of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia is audibly a relative of our salamat. Others come from an entirely different linguistic world: the khop khun of Thailand, the cảm ơn of Viet Nam.

That is what this region actually is. Not one language broken into pieces, but many languages that learned to understand one another across centuries of trade, travel and living side by side.

Sources:
https://asean.org/the-founding-of-asean/
https://asean.org/asean-chairmanship-2026-philippines/

Count to five in Filipino: isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima.Now count in Malay. In Indonesian. In Tetum, spoken in Timor-L...
04/08/2026

Count to five in Filipino: isa, dalawa, tatlo, apat, lima.

Now count in Malay. In Indonesian. In Tetum, spoken in Timor-Leste.

Still lima.

This is not a coincidence, and it is not borrowing either. More than four thousand years ago, a family of languages began spreading from Taiwan into the islands of Southeast Asia. Linguists call it Austronesian. Tagalog, Cebuano and Ilocano descend from it — and so do Malay, Indonesian, Javanese and Tetum. When a Filipino says mata, it is understood in Kuala Lumpur, in Jakarta and in Dili. That word was never borrowed. All of us inherited it.

Not all of ASEAN, though. Thai, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese and Burmese come from entirely different language families. What connects us to them is not ancestry but centuries of trade — and that is where the rest of this month goes.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Austronesian-languages/Classification-and-prehistory

In 1976, in Bali, the leaders of Southeast Asia signed a promise to one another: the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.Its...
28/07/2026

In 1976, in Bali, the leaders of Southeast Asia signed a promise to one another: the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.

Its principles are deceptively simple — mutual respect, non-interference, and the peaceful settlement of disagreements. But those few ideas became the bedrock of how the region has kept the peace for half a century. In 2026 the treaty turns 50 — and the Philippines is helping lead the commemoration.

The Philippines’ fingerprints are on the treaty’s story. When the region wanted to open it to friends beyond Southeast Asia, it was amended in Manila in 1987 — turning a regional pact into a framework that dozens of countries around the world have since signed onto.

Sources:
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/177305-timeline-asean-50-years-timeline-agreements-challenges/
https://aseminfoboard.org/community/philippines-2026-asean-chairmanship/

Since 1974, thousands of young Filipinos have boarded a ship that changes the way they see the region.The Ship for South...
23/07/2026

Since 1974, thousands of young Filipinos have boarded a ship that changes the way they see the region.

The Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Programme (SSEAYP) brings together some 300 young people from every ASEAN nation and Japan for a voyage of homestays, discussions, and cultural exchange. The Philippines has taken part from the very beginning — and our alumni carry the experience home.

It shows in the work they do afterward. One recent Filipino batch organised a “Hero in YOUth” workshop at Pasong Tamo Elementary School, teaming up with the local Sangguniang Kabataan to teach children about media literacy, first aid, and caring for the environment. That’s the point of youth exchange: it doesn’t end at the gangway. It comes home and gives back.

Sources:
https://www8.cao.go.jp/youth/kouryu/en/sseayp/sseayp.html
https://www.siphilippines.org/about/sseayp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_for_Southeast_Asian_and_Japanese_Youth_Program

Long before 2026, Manila was already a city where ASEAN made history.The Philippines is a founding member of ASEAN. Our ...
21/07/2026

Long before 2026, Manila was already a city where ASEAN made history.
The Philippines is a founding member of ASEAN. Our own Narciso Ramos was among the five who signed the founding Bangkok Declaration in 1967. Two decades later, in December 1987, Manila hosted the 3rd ASEAN Summit, producing the Manila Declaration and a landmark set of economic agreements that pushed regional cooperation forward.

We hosted again in Cebu in 2007, where leaders set the stage for the ASEAN Charter — the document that gave the bloc its legal backbone. And in 2017, under the Philippine chairmanship, ASEAN adopted the Consensus on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers in Manila which is a milestone close to the hearts of millions of Filipino families abroad.

Now, in 2026, the Philippines takes the chair once more. Four moments, one through-line: when the region needs a table to gather around, the Philippines has always been ready to host.

Sources:
https://asean.org/manila-declaration-philippines-15-december-1987/
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/166132-look-back-asean-history/
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-11/11/c_137598688.htm

Say “lima” in Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, or Dili — and everyone counts to five.That’s no coincidence. Filipino, alon...
14/07/2026

Say “lima” in Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, or Dili — and everyone counts to five.
That’s no coincidence. Filipino, along with more than 170 languages in our islands, belongs to the vast Austronesian family — the same family as Malay, Indonesian, Javanese, and Tetum in Timor-Leste. Thousands of years before any colonizer arrived, seafaring ancestors carried this shared language across the seas, from Taiwan through the Philippines all the way to Madagascar and the Pacific.

The kinship runs past words. Across the region we share the same deep roots: lashed-plank boats, houses on stilts, rice at the center of the table, and a bone-deep respect for elders and ancestors. Colonial languages layered new words on top — but the foundation was always Southeast Asian.

When we say ASEAN is a family, we mean it almost literally. We’re cousins who never forgot how to count together.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Austronesian-languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_peoples
https://narrastudio.com/blogs/journal/the-filipino-language-and-its-austronesian-roots-five-things-you-should-know

Here’s something many Filipino students never hear: your classroom doesn’t end at our shores.Across ASEAN, a quiet web o...
10/07/2026

Here’s something many Filipino students never hear: your classroom doesn’t end at our shores.

Across ASEAN, a quiet web of programs lets Filipino students and teachers learn, teach, and grow alongside their Southeast Asian neighbors. Through SEAMEO’s SEA-Teacher program, Filipino education students practice-teach in schools in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam — and welcome their counterparts here. In one recent batch, Capiz State University alone sent 49 future teachers abroad and hosted 33 international students in return.

There’s more: the ASEAN University Network (AUN) links leading universities across the region; the ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS) program moves students between campuses; and regional work on credit transfer and mutual recognition is helping a Filipino diploma travel farther.

Sources:
https://pia.gov.ph/news/asean-partnership-strengthens-educational-cooperation/
https://www.aunsec.org/
https://connectivity.asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Study-on-Enhancing-Intra-ASEAN-University-Student-Mobility_Final.pdf

Timor-Leste’s road to nationhood was hard-won — and Filipinos walked part of it alongside them.When the young nation fac...
09/07/2026

Timor-Leste’s road to nationhood was hard-won — and Filipinos walked part of it alongside them.

When the young nation faced its most dangerous hour in 1999, the Philippines answered the call. More than 530 Filipino soldiers, doctors, nurses, engineers, and specialists served in the Philippine Humanitarian Support Mission to East Timor. And when the United Nations took over the peacekeeping operation in February 2000, it was a Filipino — Lieutenant General Jaime de los Santos — who became the first commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Timor-Leste.

But soldiers were only part of the story. Filipino teachers, missionaries, health workers, and social workers came too, helping build schools, clinics, and communities in a nation starting almost from scratch. That quiet work continues: by one recent account, more than 1,500 Filipinos still live and work in Timor-Leste today.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines%E2%80%93Timor-Leste_relations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Transitional_Administration_in_East_Timor
https://philippines.embassy.gov.au/mnla/medrel120403.html
https://mb.com.ph/2025/11/02/a-new-dawn-for-timor-leste-and-asean

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