ASEAN Summit scales down, focuses on oil, food, migrant workers

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday, March 27, announced that the 2026 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit will be “bare bones” amid the fuel crisis caused by the tensions in the Middle East—with focus primarily being on oil, food, and migrant workers. 

In a media interview in Cavite, Marcos said that he initially asked the other ASEAN member states if they would like to postpone the Summit amid the fuel crisis driven by the Middle East tensions. 

“The consensus that we came to is that it is precisely now that we must coordinate our efforts, so that is what we are going to do,” Marcos said. 

“The way that we described it is that we have, it is a bare bones ASEAN Summit… we will be talking about three main subjects: about the supply of petroleum and petroleum products, the supply of food and the price of food, and migrant workers. Those will be the three subject matters that we will be taking up in the ASEAN Summit,” the president added. 

Now, Marcos said that the focus is on how ASEAN can handle the shocks coming from the fuel crisis.  

The length of the first summit, slated in May, will also be shortened to a day and a half, from May 7 to May 8, Marcos said. ASEAN Summits typically last around three to four days, complete with meetings and ceremonies. 

The ASEAN Summit in November, where leaders from major players like China, Japan, the United States and more, is still likely to push through, Marcos said.  

The P22 billion budget for the ASEAN Summit has also been slashed and redirected to those who are affected by the oil crisis, the president said when asked. 

“That's exactly why we did this. One of the big reasons why we did this,” Marcos said. 

The Philippines is the first country in the world to declare an energy emergency due to the Middle East tensions. 

The majority of the Philippines’ fuel is imported, making it vulnerable to external shocks such as the US-Israel War on Iran. While fuel supplies in the country remain uncertain beyond the second quarter, Marcos has vowed that fuel negotiations with other countries are still ongoing.