ASEAN | FLASHBACKS/INSIGHTS | Campus Press | Celebrating Asean Month

INDEED, time flies with lightning speed. What began as the Asean founding in 1967, which at its Integration of 2015 compelled member countries to align and harmonize their educational system with each other, had its 55th anniversary last week! And what’s in it for academe? DepEd Memorandum s. 2022 on this year’s Asean Month Celebration signed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio refreshes our recall on the Asean.

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The Asean. The memo informed: “The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was established on August 8, 1967, through the signing of the Asean Declaration (Bangkok Declaration). The Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand signed the original Declaration. Later, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Vietnam joined the Association, forming the current Asean Member States.” Said Memo informs us further, of “Proclamation No. 282 dated July 31, 2018 (Amending Proclamation 1008 dated May 21, 1997)” declaring “August of every year as ‘Asean Month’ and Civil Service Commission Memorandum Circular No. 013 dated July 8, 2019, enjoining all government agency heads to include the singing of the Asean Anthem and sharing of information on Asean in all flag-raising ceremonies within August of every year beginning 2019.” It also informs that the Department of Education is “organizing an Asean Month celebration for 2022,” with “the ICO annually [providing] all Regional Offices with support funds for the celebration of Asean Month.”

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Asean Month flag-raising ceremony. Complying with Memo of VP and Education Secretary Duterte-Carpio, DepEd Undersecretary for Legislative Affairs and Partnerships Atty. Gerard L. Chan, CESO I, and seasoned internationalization practitioner Dr. Margarita Consolacion Casabar Ballesteros, director of the DepEd Internationalization Cooperation Office (ICO), had the special flag-raising ceremony on August 8 “simultaneously held at the Bulwagan ng Karunungan and in front of the Rizal Building lobby at 8 to 9 a.m.” Their joint Memo invited “the Executive Committee, Bureau and Service Directors, Division Chiefs and all DepEd Central Office Personnel” and who were requested to wear “Asean attire.” Embassy representatives “of the Asean Member States in the Philippines were likewise invited.” The following confirmed “their physical attendance at the event: Chargé d’affaires Khairul Hazwan Nor, Embassy of Brunei Darussalam; Second Secretary Meng Siv Linh, Embassy of Cambodia; Deputy Chief of Mission Widya Rahmanto, Embassy of Indonesia; Ambassador Songkane Luangmuninthone, Embassy of Lao PDR; Ambassador Norman bin Muhamad, Embassy of Malaysia; Minister and Chargé d’affaires Aung Kyaw Oo, Embassy of Myanmar; Ambassador Gerard Ho, Embassy of Singapore; Ambassador Tull Traisorat, Royal Thai Embassy; and Ambassador Hoang Huy Chung, Embassy of Vietnam.”

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ICO initiatives. Consonant to the ICO mandate, Director Ballesteros has organized Asean Month celebration activities. As her August 6 letter informs, the Asean celebration this year are “events that never happened in the history of the department.” The DepEd’s theme for this year’s Asean Month celebration is “Act as One: Road to Recovery towards a Resilient Asean.” Besides the “flag-raising ceremony held last Monday, 08 August commemorating the 55th Founding Anniversary of Asean, activities… from [Aug.]1 to 31, 2022 Asean Month Celebration and Posting of 55th Asean Founding Anniversary Promotional Materials, c/o ICO and PAS; August 8 to12 – Asean Cultural Exhibition involving all DepEd CO Personnel, NCCA, SEA Embassies in the Philippines and are encouraged to visit the Asean Cultural Exhibition at the Rizal Lobby. August 23 to 24 – Forum on International Partnerships and Commitments in Basic Education, c/o the ICO, DepEd Region 7, and ICO Regional Focal Persons. Learners, teaching and non-teaching staff, local and abroad, are encouraged to regularly visit the DepEd and DepEd-ICO Facebook pages for information about Asean. The ICO Facebook streams the month-long celebration featuring Duterte-Carpio’s opening remarks at the flag-raising ceremony.

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What academia can do. Signing the 2017 proclamation of August as Asean month, then President Rodrigo Duterte said “it was to further promote and heighten awareness of the Asean and instill in the minds of the Filipino people the importance, value, and meaning of the Asean in achieving and maintaining regional peace and sustainable development.” (https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1005432) Obviously involving academe, the Asean Declaration of aims and purposes include, among others, to (1) provide assistance to each other (through) training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres; (2) promote SEA studies; and (3) maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues for even closer cooperation among themselves. (http:// www.asean-china-center.org/english/2010-04/24/ c_13265663.htm). Academia has varied opportunities to help realize these. Besides faculty and student exchange in Asean universities, enrich curricula at different educational system levels with Asean culture in various disciplines — the humanities (theology, philosophy, literature, history). Introduce Asean languages and Comparative Asean Religions as electives in tertiary education major requirements. Introduce visual and performing arts, sports, and scientific outputs of Asean countries. Teach culture as a theme in class/extra-class activities to develop students’ appreciation of different Asean cultures. With academe’s catchment communities, hold symposia, lecture series, conferences, workshops, exhibits, civic engagement activities, dramas/plays, skits, other modes of the Asean theatre. Add fun and appreciation to classroom lectures with contests drawing cartoons, animations related to Asean cultures. Focus academic research drawn from Asean purposes and aims. Publish these in any of the 12 international Asian journals, several of which are the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, the Journal of Southeast Asian Affairs and the Asean Journal on Science and Technology for Development of the Asean Committee on Science and Technology and managed by Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University. Additionally, apply membership in the Asean University Network (AUN) and avail of the Seameo regional centers training programs for continuing professional development (CPD). All these relate us closely to the Asean.