MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines Thursday formally ended its yearlong chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and turned over the alphabetically rotating position to Singapore.

Unless intervening events alter the sequence, Manila will retake the helm of the ASEAN standing committee in 2016, or a year after the envisioned integration of the 10-nation bloc into a tighter “ASEAN Community” by 2015.

“By all measures we made it,” said Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, noting that the chairmanship -- and the hosting chores it entailed -- fell on the Philippines’ lap a year ahead of schedule after military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) passed on its turn.

“I will not call it a success but it’s up to you to judge,” Romulo said in a press conference at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, minutes after handing over the ASEAN flag to Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo.

The turnover came at the end of a five-day series of annual ASEAN meetings at the PICC which included the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meetings (AMM), the Post Ministerial Conferences and the 14th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

Substantial strides

Now in its 40th year, ASEAN has long been criticized for its slow, consensus-based approach to decision making, but Romulo said the final week of the Philippine chairmanship saw the organization taking “substantial strides.”

He took note of the adoption of the provision on the establishment of a human rights body in the draft ASEAN Charter, “an issue that the Philippines has advocated” since discussions on the landmark document began during the Kuala Lumpur summit in 2005.

The charter is expected to be approved by the ASEAN heads of state when they meet in Singapore in November.

Migrant workers’ welfare

Romulo also cited the adoption of what he called “two vital documents that will boost the migrant workers’ welfare.”

These were the Statement on the Establishment of the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion Rights of Migrant Workers, and the Guidelines for the Provision of Emergency Assistance by ASEAN Missions in Third Countries to Nationals of ASEAN Member Countries in Crisis Situations.

But a source privy to the closed-door meetings told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the statement on migrant workers was actually expected to be signed during the AMM, an act that would have made the document more legally binding.

However, Malaysia, which is host to thousands of migrant workers from neighboring ASEAN countries including the Philippines, deferred signing the document, the source said.

Rough weather

Eight months earlier, the Philippine chairmanship also came under rough weather, quite literally, when the December 2006 leaders’ summit in Cebu was postponed to January the next year.

The government cited an incoming typhoon as the reason for the postponement, amid speculation that the real cause were the warnings issued by various countries, including the United States, on an alleged terrorist plot to disrupt the 12th ASEAN Summit.