The Philippine Embassy in Brunei Darussalam commemorated the 55th founding anniversary of ASEAN at a flag hoisting ceremony at the embassy yesterday.
The ceremony honoured the contributions to ASEAN of former president Fidel V Ramos who passed away on July 31, 2022.
The Philippine flag was lowered at half-mast in keeping with the period of national mourning and embassy personnel wore black armbands in honour of the former president.
The first batch of pilots to begin the 2022 recurrent Philippine Air Force S-70i Black Hawk Simulator Training in Brunei, Major Paul R Durano and Major Christopher G Rabina were also present.
Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Marian Jocelyn R Tirol-Ignacio spoke about the former president as an outstanding statesman who served from 1992 to 1998 as the 12th President of the Philippines.
The ambassador recalled the Ramos’ years when “ASEAN adopted, upon the Philippines’ initiative, the 1992 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to preserve peace among claimant states.
“The Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines – East Asia Growth (BIMP-EAGA) area was organised in 1994 to promote economic development within the ASEAN sub-region.
“The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the only multilateral government level security dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region was established in 1994”.
The ambassador also joined other resident heads of mission of ASEAN member states and ASEAN dialogue partners at a flag hoisting ceremony organised by the Brunei government to commemorate ASEAN Day at the International Convention Centre in Berakas presided by Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Emaleen binti Abdul Rahman Teo.
ASEAN is hailed as one of the most successful inter-governmental organisations in the world, bringing peace, stability and prosperity to the region for over 50 years.
Since its inception in 1967, ASEAN has played a major role in the development of the Southeast Asian region. Consisting of its 10 member states: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, ASEAN is home to 661.8 million people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of USD3.2 trillion.
