CSO flags PHL spending in ASEAN summit hosting

A FILIPINO delegate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) civil society organizations’ (CSOs) forum on Thursday criticized the government for its about $285-million expenditures for the hosting of the 48^th ASEAN summit.

Raquel Castillo, co-chair of the Philippine National Organizing Committee for the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF), called for an inclusive hosting of the summit since the funds for the event, amounting to P17.5 billion, were taken from the national budget.

“We will be spending this on all of the processes, the meetings of the officials on the ASEAN [summit] this year,” she said in a live-streamed briefing. “And the business-as-usual here is we do not see them in the negotiation tables, in the processes, the ordinary people [don’t see them].”

She added that the budget for the Philippines’ hosting of the event has been paid for by Filipino taxpayers.

The briefing hosted by the ACSC/APF sent representatives from several Southeast Asian Nations, including those from the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in April said the summit proceeded as planned but with austerity measures in place in consideration of the oil shock faced by the country due to the war between the US-Israel and Iran. — Kaela Patricia B. Gabriel