The Regional Regime Architecture for the Envisioned ASEAN Community Connectivity: Domestic Constraints and Challenges for the Philippines

摘要

In its continuous effort to fine-tune its institutional ways of doing things to achieve a seamless regulatory framework, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has already had two Master Plans on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC). These documents have been the blueprint for the overall effort of the ASEAN member States to give flesh to the ASEAN motto of 'One vision, One Vision, One Community'. These Master Plans have clearly identified specific areas in the ASEAN's regime making initiatives to 'foster a rule-governed activity' in their mutual interactions. As the first initiative in this regime-making effort, The Ha Noi Declaration on the adoption of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC 2010) called for a well-connected ASEAN to put in place an ASEAN Community by 2015. The Declaration speaks of a three pronged approach for the achievement of the envisioned connectivity: Physical connectivity; Institutional connectivity; and People to people connectivity. As a successor document, the Master Plan for ASEAN Connectivity 2025 (MPAC 2025) was adopted on 6 September 2016 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. It focuses on five issues areas, namely 'sustainable infrastructure, digital innovation, seamless logistics, regulatory excellence and people mobility'. To ensure continuity, this new rendition of the Master Plan 'incorporated the remaining initiatives' of its predecessor document. In light of these, the concern of this paper focuses on institutional connectivity that is basically anchored on the political component of the Master Plans. As it stands, various issues currently exist as 'impediments to movement of goods, services and skilled labor across borders'. Needless to say, these issues are policy concerns requiring political decisions that hinge on the political sphere of every member country. It is on this point that this paper derives its relevance. Probing into the fundamental principles undergirding the domestic politics of the Philippines, this paper posits the thesis that the Philippines is not in sync with the ASEAN connectivity initiatives. Thus the paper argues for some fundamental restructuring of the Philippine government to respond expeditiously to the challenges posed by the emerging regional regime architecture in the ASEAN.