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PHILIPPINES AND OTHER ASEAN EMBASSIES IN CHILE CELEBRATE 56 YEARS OF ASEAN SOLIDARITY

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Published: 10 August 2023

                   ^{Photos from the festivities of the 56th Celebration of the Founding of ASEAN held at Gran Via, Lo Barnechea on 09 August 2023}

(Santiago, 08 August 2023) – The Philippine Embassy in Chile with the embassies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam celebrated the 56^th Anniversary of the Founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in a cultural and gastronomic festivity held at the Indonesian Embassy’s official residence at Gran Via, Lo Barnechea, on 08 August 2023.  Indonesia is the current Chair of the ASEAN Committee in Santiago or ACS.

The official program started with the playing of the Chilean national anthem followed closely by the ASEAN hymn. Indonesian Ambassador to Chile H.E. Muhammad Anshor recalled ASEAN’s rich history, including the many milestones that led to the profound solidarity ASEAN members now enjoy.  He also highlighted the ongoing projects and many other promising areas of collaboration within the ASEAN-Chile Development Partnership, specifically under the Practical Areas of Cooperation (PCA).

Reciprocating Ambassador Anshor’s remarks, DIRAPAC (Directorate for Asia Pacific) Director Ambassador Patricio Powell of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed a spotlight on Chile’s ongoing efforts to complete the ASEAN-Chile Roadmap for Development Partnership—the main outcome document from the recently concluded ASEAN-Chile Dialogue: Exploring Synergies for the Future organized by DIRAPAC on 02-03 August 2023. Ambassador Powell expressed optimism that “this Roadmap will lead to a more concretized development strategy between Chile and ASEAN in the areas of trade and investment, sustainable development, combating climate change, and energy transition.”

The ASEAN Committee in Santiago entertained guests with joint, inter-embassy Anklung renditions of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love and Ritchie Valen’s La Bamba, complemented by a live Anklung tutorial for willing participants. Finance Officer Ms. Vanessa I. Arevalo and local hire Mr. Manuel Andres Vidal enthusiastically represented the Philippine Embassy during the aforesaid musical performances.

Similar to past ASEAN celebrations, the Philippines and other ACS members served popular Southeast Asian cuisines, delicacies, desserts, and beverages. The Philippine booth featured generous servings of traditional Filipino pancit, classic beef kaldereta with rice, extra crispy turon with caramelized papaya slices—a crowd favorite—and mango sago to serve as both light dessert and beverage.

Guests also visited the Philippine booth for its colorful display of native T’boli attire, T’boli prayer bell and necklace, and imaginative array of wooden decorative plates, carved with old-fashioned Filipino aphorisms and values. Consistent with its ongoing trade and investment initiatives to help top-selling Filipino food and drinks penetrate the Chilean market and households, the Embassy also showcased samples of dried mangoes, bananas, guavas, and pineapples, alongside coconut and mango balls, all sourced from renowned Cebu-based company, Profood International Corp.

The Philippine Embassy is due to assume the rotating biannual Chairmanship of ACS in August 2023 and host next year’s 57^th ASEAN Day Celebration. END

PHILIPPINES-CHILE HOLD 1ST MEETING ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS FOR EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS

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Published: 10 August 2023

^{Participants from the PHL and CHL Embassies, DFA-OAA, DND, OCD, NDRRMC, and SHOA pose for a group photo following the successfully concluded Philippines-Chile 1st Meeting on Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Systems for Earthquakes and Tsunamis hosted by Santiago PE}

(Santiago, 8 August 2023) As part of its politico-security initiatives and as a project held under the Philippines-Chile MOU on Cooperation in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM), the Philippine Embassy in Chile hosted the first-ever online Introductory Meeting on Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Systems for Earthquakes and Tsunamis between the PHL’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and the Chilean Navy’s Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) on 08 August 2023 (8am Chile time / 8pm Manila time).

In her opening remarks, PHL Ambassador to Chile H.E. Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat underlined the “timeliness of the NDRRMC and SHOA meeting as the Philippines continues to manage the residual effects and flooding from the most recent typhoon and as Chile equally deals with similar challenges from heavy rainfall some two months prior.” She expressed optimism that both sides would highly benefit from each other’s best practices in disaster preparedness and early warning protocols vis-à-vis quakes and tsunamis, and, most importantly, come up with ways forward to formalize cooperation and partnerships between Philippine and Chilean DRRM institutions and stakeholders.

SHOA Director Rear Admiral Arturo Oxley echoed the PHL Ambassador’s sentiments and expressed his agency’s delight to participate in such a landmark engagement between the two countries. He assured all attendees of SHOA’s ready cooperation and eagerness to share its best practices with the PHL side, as well as to learn from the PHL’s own.

SHOA’s Deputy Director Captain Carlos Zuñiga provided an overview of SHOA as an institution and the long history of massive quakes and tsunamis that have devastated Chilean coastal and non-coastal regions.  He described how these frequent calamities fundamentally gave birth to the country’s DRRM institutions and nationwide preparedness protocols, including those of SHOA. He presented slides and videos which illustrated the varying degrees and levels of devastation tsunamis or storm surges are capable of inflicting, especially those with longer periods and intervals. He also showed Chile’s classification system for tsunami alerts and ensuing action—ranging from Instrumental (<.3m), Minor (0.3-1m), Intermediate (1-3m) to Major (>3m)—which require specific stages of coastal alerts and logistics.  Explaining their segmented approach to coastal evacuations, Captain Zuñiga showed how SHOA divided Chile into 21 geographical blocks to more precisely calibrate response under their pre-modeled tsunami scenarios or SIPAT.

Captain Zuñiga explained how SHOA’s SNAM (National System for Tsunami Alerts) constantly liaises with domestic, regional, and global networks, such as Chile’s National Disaster Management Office, the Southeast Pacific Regional Cooperation, National Mareographic Network, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others.  Lastly, he listed the key pillars which enable SHOA’s SNAM to be among the best in the world in what they do: 1) Advanced technology systems, with national scientific contribution, 2) High level of professionalism and training, 3) Redundancy in monitoring, command/control and communication systems, 4) High cost of maintenance and renovation, and 5) Operation under national and international protocols.

To provide a bird’s eye view of the institutional set-up and the overall disaster risk profile of the Philippines, OCD Assistant Secretary Hernando M. Caraig, Jr. and Mr. Ryan Christopher P. Viado described scenarios on recent natural and human-induced calamities which have devastated the country as of late, alongside concrete data on casualties, injuries, as well as the estimated cost of property damage of each disasters. Equally important, NDRRMC underscored the crucial paradigm shift on the part of the PHL as regards its DRRM approach, mandated by R.A. 10121 or the PHL DRRM Act.  NDRRMC explained how R.A. 10121 shifted the PHL’s disaster approach from a “reactive, response-focused backdrop toward a more proactive, bottom-up, participatory, and integrated approach.”

SHOA’s and NDRRMC’s presentations were closely followed by a substantive Q&A and by Ambassador Balatbat’s summary of key points to learn from each other, such as: NDRRMC’s focus on developing disaster resilient communities, constant innovation, and efforts to secure the buy-in of all stakeholders. She also identified SHOA’s best practices that can be adapted by PHL agencies dealing with disaster risk management: training and drills; redundancy of communications; cooperation with other countries, international institutions, and universities; coordination within Chilean government networks through specific protocols; investment in tech and facilities; and, the use of data to forecast the impact of a seismic and/or tsunami event.

Chilean Ambassador to the PHL H.E. Alvaro Jara closed the meeting by noting NDRRMC’s and SHOA’s “shared mission and challenge to protect human lives” and by highlighting the “sense of pride” the Philippines and Chile share in having such strong institutions overseeing their respective DRRM mandates.  Ambassador Jara also proposed that the two agencies prepare a shopping list of areas of interest in each other’s work, particularly their best practices.

To help connect the said agencies, Ambassador Balatbat offered to have the Philippine Embassy in Santiago put together a directory of contacts and to facilitate future engagements between NDRRMC and SHOA as well as Chile’s Servicio Nacional de Prevencion y Repuestas Ante Desastres (SENAPRED), the CHL agency taking the lead in all matters related to DRRM.

Also in attendance during the online meeting were officials from the PHL Office of Civil Defense’s (OCD) operations, capacity-building, and planning offices, as well as other officials from DND, DFA-Office of American Affairs and the PHL and CHL Embassies in Santiago and Manila.

The first-ever online Introductory Meeting on Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Systems for Earthquakes and Tsunamis was formally capped in the afternoon of 08 August 2023 (CHL time) by a personal visit of SHOA Director Rear Admiral Oxley to the Philippine Chancery in Las Condes to discuss ways forward to foster cooperation between SHOA and NDRRMC, including an offer to arrange a visit to SHOA’s facilities. END

Rear Admiral Oxley, Director of SHOA (center), receives a token of appreciation from Ambassador Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat (exreme left) and First Secretary & Consul Dennis John C. Briones (extreme right) during his visit to the PHL Embassy in Santiago

ASEAN-CHILE CHART WAY FORWARD IN A SYNERGIES DIALOGUE AND GASTRONOMIC EVENT

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Published: 10 August 2023

^{Photos from the ASEAN-Chile Dialogue: Exploring Synergies for the Future and Gastronomic Event: Flavors of Southeast Asia held in Central Santiago on 2 August 2023}

(Santiago, 2 August 2023) The Philippine Embassy in Chile, alongside other members of the ASEAN Committee in Santiago—Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam—joined high-level officials of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren, in successfully conducting the first-ever ASEAN-Chile Dialogue and Gastronomic Event held at the MFA building in Teatinos, Central Santiago on 02 August 2023.

The ASEAN-Chile Dialogue: Exploring Synergies for the Future was an initiative of the MFA’s DIRAPAC or Directorate for Asia and the Pacific (DIRAPAC). The dialogue served as a 2-day foreign policy exercise for MFA officials and Chilean policy-makers seeking to promote discussions and strategic collaborations between Chile and ASEAN—with the end goal of crafting an ASEAN-Chile Roadmap in a drafting session scheduled on August 3. 

The dialogue also highlighted the geopolitical and economic importance of the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia vis-à-vis Chile’s long-term foreign policy priorities, economic pivot toward the region, and its Practical Cooperation Areas (PCAs) under the ASEAN-Chile Development Partnership.

Speaking on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), its principles, and related ASEAN-Chile PCAs, PHL Ambassador to Chile Celeste Vinzon-Balatbat invited MFA officials and attendees to consider framing ASEAN-Chile economic engagement within 10 vital and intersecting areas: (1) the ASEAN Single Window, (2) Consumer Protection, (3) Mining and Mineral Cooperation, (4) Science and Technology, (5) Agriculture, (6) Non-Conventional Renewable Energy, (7) Tourism Promotion, (8) Micro Small and Medium Enterprises or MSMEs, and (9) Free Trade Agreements and Comprehensive Economic Partnerships, and (10) Incorporating the Gender Dimension in Government Policies.

With the AEC and PCAs guiding the trajectory of ASEAN-Chile aspirations, Ambassador Balatbat invited all participating Chilean officials and stakeholders to ponder “How do we [ASEAN and Chile] get there?”, while at the same time emphasizing the “need to take stock of its existing partnership and development objectives as the AEC Blueprint 2025, the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, and the ASEAN-Chile PCAs for Development Partnership collectively approach the end of their individual timelines by 2025.”

The Ambassadors of other ACS members discussed the general history of ASEAN (Viet Nam), the ASEAN Political-Security Community (Malaysia), the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (Thailand), and ASEAN’s External Relations and 2025 Chairmanship Priorities (Indonesia).

Also speaking for Chile’s part were MFA officials from DIRAPAC on the Trajectory of Chile-ASEAN, AGCID (Agency for International Cooperation and Development) on Chile-ASEAN Cooperation, SUBREI (Subsecretariat for International Economic Relations) on Perceptions and Challenges of Trade with ASEAN, and DIPLANE (Directorate for Strategic Planning) on Long-Term View of Chile-ASEAN Relations.

^{Photos from the ASEAN-Chile Gastronomic Event: Flavors of Southeast Asia as the Chilean FM share a laugh with ACS Ambassadors and visit the PHL booth to sample Filipino dried mangoes}

The succeeding ASEAN Gastronomic Event: Flavors of Southeast Asia was inaugurated by no less than CHL Foreign Minister Van Klaveren, who, in his opening remarks, enthusiastically shared how one of Chile’s founding fathers, Bernardo O’Higgins, “once upon a time set his eyes in equally helping liberate the Philippines from Spanish rule.”  He also outlined the “broad spectrum of cooperation under the ASEAN-Chile PCAs, most especially on the environment, ocean and maritime cooperation, free trade and sea links, smart cities, and energy transition.”

To highlight our common Hispanic heritage with Chile, the Philippine booth featured a vertical display of the Carta Hydrographica y Chronographica de las Yslas Filipinas or the Murillo-Velarde Map of 1734, whose digital image was courtesy of Chairman and CEO Mel Velasco Velarde of Velarde Inc.  The map is also known as the “Mother of All Philippine Maps” being the first scientific map of the entire Philippine archipelago. It served as a key piece of evidence for the South China Sea Arbitration Case.

A second centerpiece was a quincentennial commemoration basket of Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, which was showcased alongside colorful Fiestas Filipinas boxes, top-selling Filipino dried fruits and snacks, as well as artisanal and Capiz shell-based jewelries and display items.

Foreign Minister Van Klaveren, with an estimated 200 plus visitors for the event, visited the Philippine booth and enjoyed generous servings of lumpiang shanghai, Filipino coconut macaroons, and Cebu dried mangoes. The Chilean Foreign Minister also took home his own pack of Cebu’s dried mangoes, courtesy of the Philippine Embassy.

The same 200 attendees from the ASEAN-Chile Dialogue and Gastronomic Event will be invited by the Philippines and rest of ACS to the forthcoming 56^th Anniversary of the Founding of ASEAN on 08 August 2023. END