As it assumes ASEAN chair, the Philippines faces 3 hard tests

At the close of this year’s ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. officially accepted the bloc’s chairmanship from Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim — a symbolic handover that also placed on the Philippines’ shoulders a set of regional problems with no easy fixes.

- Cristina Chi/Philstar.com

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. officially accepted the bloc's chairmanship. GRAPHIC DESIGN BY GERALDINE SANTOS

Leading the ASEAN bloc is an “enormous responsibility,” Marcos told reporters after the ceremony. “But at the same time, it provides us great opportunities.”

For 2026, Manila will have to prove that optimism can hold up as it inherits regional issues that have tested the bloc’s unity and credibility, while itself trying to finalize a long-sought code of conduct to manage tensions in the South China Sea.

These are the three major issues the Philippines will face as it chairs ASEAN in 2026.

One of the most visible test-cards for the Philippines will be the long-delayed negotiation of a Code of Conduct (COC) between ASEAN and China — an agreement that has stalled for two decades.

Marcos made clear in Kuala Lumpur that the COC tops his agenda. When asked if Manila could accept a nonbinding agreement, his answer suggested he hadn’t gamed out the politics. “How do you make a treaty legally-binding?” he said. “If you sign a treaty, you are expected to be bound by it.”

The problem is that Beijing and several ASEAN members have spent years avoiding precisely that commitment. Questions remain about whether the COC will have enforcement mechanisms, who it binds, what happens when violations occur, and even which waters it covers.

Ian Chong, a political scientist specializing in Southeast Asian politics at the National University of Singapore, explains that these questions “do not lend themselves to quick resolution.”