The ASEAN Economic Community will officially launch this December 31, 2015 where the ASEAN will be considered as one in terms of population, economy, and market. This phenomenon would make ASEAN as a major consideration in the world market since it would be at the levels of the prime economies in the world and also in terms of human resources. As a proof, according to www.aseanup.com, ASEAN has a $2.323T combined economy(from its member countries), and has a 608.405M combined human resource(also from its member countries); this combined economy and human resource makes ASEAN significant in the global market since it would be big enough to compete with large economies such as EU, USA, Japan, China, and India and also has big human resource enough to be attractive to the global market that can compete with China, India, EU, USA, and Japan. Amidst the advantages of this considered 'big shift,' there are seen challenges in the integration of the member nations of ASEAN.

In search for these issues that challenges, I would like to focus on the perspective of a Filipino citizen by discussing the challenges that we personally face and would affect in the integration processes. According to Dr. Macaranas of the Asian Institute of Management, "The Philippines should also pay attention to its much neglected physical ports facilities through PPP, remove conflict-of-interest in regulatory agencies that own certain infrastructure, review its cabotage policy, and improve the efficiency of regulatory agencies and trade-related offices." In his claim that there is a neglect in the physical port facilities, there are several news reports in the past few months that support it. Moreover, I have personally seen the cargoes that are in Kawit, Cavite due to port congestion. In the cabotage policy, there is a need to improve the policies concerning the trade of goods and the travel of passengers in the waters since if we are to trade highly with our neighbor countries, this policy will be used extensively when the time comes for the ASEAN countries to be one and be named as ASEAN economic community. In the issues concerning the efficiency of regulatory agencies and trade-related offices, one could recall the issues clouding the Bureau of Customs about Balikbayan Boxes and also the face that the Bureau carries: 'corrupted'(Logarta-Lagamon, 2014). Corruption is never a characteristic of an office that is efficient since the resource that are allocated for a specific purpose are not fully used for that purpose. Rather, it is used by the corrupter for other purposes which manifest his or her greed.

Having a break from the technical challenges, I have interviewed some members of the 21C Youth to express their views on the question "What do you think are the issues that challenges ASEAN?" Before they answered the question, I told them that there is no dichotomy between ASEAN and its integration; that the issues/problems of the ASEAN integration are also the problems of ASEAN per se. Abigail Briones from HUB42 said that there are issues regarding the language requirement of some countries specifically requiring their employees to learn their vernacular(this is also said by Mr. Dennis Layug of East-West Educational Specialists Co. Inc. in his talk about ASEAN Integration 2015 at DLSU-D Alumni Auditorium). I also see this as a problem since we may have learned, through formal education, the language that is regarded as universal: the English Language. However, with the fact that there is a requirement for us to learn the target-for-employment country's vernacular, it seems that there is a lack of standardization of the educational competencies in the member countries of ASEAN. I also asked Erika Legaspi of BSA41 and she said that there is a problem on the possibility that there would be geopolitical tensions between member countries due to cultural differences. "If we would expand the area of should-be unity, there is also an equal rise on the possibility that the tensions would rise due to cultural and individual differences." In this era where we are focusing on progress even at the expense of culture, this point should be taken in consideration. However, if we are to see this in the view of ASEAN itself, they have proved to be not a body of weakness but a body of stability despite cultural differences(ASEAN lasted for more than 3 decades and compared to its early predecessors such as the Maphilindo and the like, it is more successful). With the fact that the Philippines is the last country in Asia to implement the K-12 program, Austin Berayo from PSY44 said that there is a possibility that the human resource of the Philippines would be inferior than those countries that have implemented it earlier. Moreover, he says that there is a possibility that locals would lose jobs since foreign employees are preferred than locals. I support him with his claim that the human resource of our country would be seen as inferior compared to other countries. However, there is a statement from www.aseanup.com regarding this 'nationalistic views' and that they said that "These nationalistic views are often expressed by people who do not have a clear understanding of the AEC. Many people in ASEAN are actually not even aware of the upcoming economic integration of ASEAN and the actual changes that it will bring." Even they have stated this, they haven't continued to support their statement in the same article they posted. Jasmin Soliven from HRD42 also worries about the agricultural lands because the integration would mean booming business ventures which signals that these lands may be converted to industrial lands. I, personally, worry about this also since the nature of our country is agricultural and yet we are forcing ourselves to go industrial. Lastly, Prof. Hanzel Gapayao from DLS-CSB said that there should be settling of the maritime disputes in the ASEAN region since if we were to trade in the Asia-Pacific region and most likely to travel cargoes through oceans and seas, it would be better if there are no maritime disputes between trading countries. I support this view since it would obviously heighten the efficiency of the trade between countries if there are no disputes because they would be better as allies rather than being enemies.

From my perspective, there are more issues clouding the ASEAN and its integration this year. I would like to start with the educational implications of it since there would be a free-flow of trading which includes education. In this light, a unified and standardized education shall be formed by the ASEAN member countries to cater the needs of a free-flowing trade in education. I am recommending that there should be like a Department of Education in ASEAN. Also, the impact of tax differences in every member country of ASEAN is big since if a businessman would like to invest, he would probably more attracted to a market where tax is lower. In order to have an unbiased decision on choosing a place to invest, there should be uniformity in the taxes in ASEAN member countries. Moreover, I think there is a need for the ASEAN member countries to change economic provisions to be consistent with one another, if we are to see unity within ASEAN.

However, as the theme of the ACU Ambassadorial Scholar Program sees it, the issues would challenge the whole ASEAN and from these challenges, we are to see a better and refined ASEAN which would cater the needs of its subordinates including educators, government, citizens, businessmen, and other people external to ASEAN.

References: www.asean.org www.aseanup.com http://asean.aim.edu/research/presentations/asean-integration-2015-is-the-philippines-ready-for-afta/ http://www.business-in-asia.com/asia/aec/AEC/asean_economic_community.html
Charo Logarta-Lagamon's talk in PRSP Student Grand Prix 2014 about #BalikAlindog (being the Chief Administrative Officer of the Public Information and Assistance Division of the Bureau of Customs)