Navigating our future together? The Philippines as a gender equality champion abroad, work in progress at home

WRITTEN BY ATHENA CHARANNE PRESTO AND MARIA TANYAG

24 April 2026

It is chairship, not chairmanship. In 2026, the Philippines is setting the tone for how it intends to lead ASEAN “with unity, clarity, and purpose” by modelling the use of gender-inclusive language. This deliberate rewording is consistent with the country’s track record of promoting gender equality within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

This year marks the Philippines’ fifth ASEAN chairship and coincides with a significant milestone: the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. The treaty continues to bear deep relevance as the region faces multiple security challenges, including conflict along the Thailand-Cambodia border, the political and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, and ongoing negotiations over a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. Against this backdrop, the Philippines has adopted the theme “Navigating our Future, Together” and promoted “people empowerment” — understood as fostering social inclusion and protecting of vulnerable groups — to an equal strategic priority as “peace and security anchors” and “prosperity corridors”. This emphasis reflects the country’s long-standing role as a regional champion of women’s rights, as it has consistently used its chairship to advance ASEAN’s gender equality agenda.

While the Philippines has a stronger gender policy record than most ASEAN member states, credibility in the chair requires more than a positive track record. Looking at what the Philippines has delivered on gender in previous chairships, where its regional advocacy has fallen short, and what domestic reforms are still needed for its 2026 leadership to carry substance beyond well-crafted declarations highlights a key point: regional leadership on gender equality is strongest when it is matched by continued progress at home.

The Philippines’ ASEAN legacy on gender equality

The Philippines’ capacity to lead ASEAN on gender equality is rooted in domestic institutions forged through sustained advocacy from vibrant local movements. Legal frameworks such as the Magna Carta of Women, the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act, and mandated gender mainstreaming across government institutions were achieved incrementally, often against significant institutional resistance. The Philippines also introduced Southeast Asia’s first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP-WPS) in 2010. Successive renewals of the NAP — most recently covering 2023 to 2033 — signals institutional momentum and ongoing civil society pressure to hold the state accountable to its commitments. For the 2023–2033 plan, development began in mid-2022, led by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU), supported by the Philippine Commission on Women, and with collaborative inputs from cabinet ministries and a network of women civil society organisations.

The Philippines has had real regional influence on gender equality, supported by a long lineage of female diplomats, policymakers, and civil society leaders who have helped shape ASEAN’s gender equality architecture since its early years.

Filipino women diplomats and civil society leaders have played a key role in shaping ASEAN’s gender equality architecture since the 1970s, and the Philippines has used its four previous chairships to advance this agenda. The 2017 Manila summit illustrates this effort, producing both a declaration embedding gender mainstreaming across ASEAN’s political-security, economic, and socio-cultural pillars and the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. The latter is particularly relevant for gender equality as women constitute a substantial share of the region’s migrant workforce and are disproportionately concentrated in domestic work and entertainment. These sectors are characterised by high rates of wage theft, contract substitution, and abuse, and historically excluded from standard labour protections. Its significance is sharpened by the fact that the Philippines is itself one of the region’s largest labour-sending countries, with women comprising the majority of its overseas workforce. Achievements of this kind are crucial in ASEAN’s consensus-based system, where durable agenda-setting is difficult. The migrant workers agreement concluded nearly a decade of negotiations following the Philippines-hosted 2007 Cebu Declaration on Migrant Workers, demonstrating Manila’s commitment to navigate conflicting interests between labour-sending and labour-receiving countries in order to institutionalise regional protections for migrant workers, many of whom are women.

The 2026 chairship therefore presents an opportunity for the Philippines to draw on domestic experience — including the recent establishment of a National Centre of Excellence on Women, Peace and Security — to influence change on a regional scale. During a consultation in November 2025, representatives from ASEAN Member States outlined priorities including an ASEAN Declaration on Gender-Transformative Implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, the establishment of an ASEAN Centre of Excellence on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, and the convening of the 4th ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit. However, the country’s credibility as a regional leader is also undermined by gaps in its own record on key issue areas, as unresolved shortcomings at home weaken the foundation of its leadership.

A track-record of contradictions

ASEAN is often characterised as having an elite diplomatic culture — an unsurprising observation given that the Philippines, like many other member states, exhibit similar dynamics in domestic politics. Research by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism found that as of October 2024, over 80 per cent of district seats in the Philippine House of Representatives were held by political dynasties. While the Philippines registers above-global-average figures of women’s parliamentary representation, at approximately 28 per cent, dynasties have remained the primary pathway by which Filipino women enter politics. Reflecting broader regional trends, women often “inherit” political office as widows, wives, or daughters of male politicians. Although the 1987 Philippine Constitution explicitly prohibits political dynasties, legislation implementing this provision remains elusive as Congress is dominated by them.

Dynasties are sustained through patronage networks, meaning that representation secured through dynasty succession often operates on the dynasty’s terms. As such, it increases the number of women in political office without necessarily advancing women’s interests. These dynamics influence which civil society organisations receive state support, which political views reach negotiating tables, and which interpretations of feminism gain regional visibility and legitimacy. Grassroots movements that have driven gender reforms in the Philippines over the past three decades have not always seen their priorities reflected in the country’s regional advocacy. GABRIELA, the Philippines’ largest grassroots women’s alliance, representing over 200 member organisations, has long campaigned for reproductive rights, the SOGIE Equality Bill, and the legalisation of divorce — issues that remain largely absent from the Philippines’ ASEAN agenda. Their omission highlights how the constituencies the state chooses to platform regionally do not always align with those driving gender reform efforts at home.

ASEAN’s gender equality developments over the past two decades have largely remained confined to the category of “women”, which risks sidelining other gender identities. Yet the same norms that subordinate women are precisely those that criminalise and exclude those who fall outside heterosexual and binary frameworks. This pattern suggests a tacit understanding among member states to advance gender-related initiatives on terms that do not disturb the region’s most conservative members. Thailand became the first ASEAN member to legalise same-sex marriage in January 2025, but it remains an exception. Several member states continue to criminalise same-sex relationships: Brunei’s Syariah Penal Code carries severe penalties including corporal punishment, Malaysia criminalises same-sex intimacy under both civil and Sharia law, and Myanmar retains colonial-era anti-sodomy statutes.

The Philippines’ trajectory on LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex) issues mirrors the regional pattern. Despite being regarded as relatively LGBTQI-friendly and hosting one of the region’s largest Pride marches, the country has failed to pass the SOGIE Equality Bill, an anti-discrimination measure first filed in Congress in 2000 and reintroduced in every legislative term since. As of March 2026, it is the longest-pending bill in Philippine legislative history, having outlasted even the once-controversial Reproductive Health Act, which itself took fifteen years to pass. The Philippines cannot diffuse a more inclusive gender politics regionally if these inequalities remain intact at home.

Pathfinder and peacemaker

Alongside chairing ASEAN in 2026, the Philippines is also concluding its bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2027-2028. The country has presented itself globally as a “pathfinder and peacemaker”, a self-representation that arguably extends to its role within ASEAN.

The Philippines has had real regional influence on gender equality, supported by a long lineage of female diplomats, policymakers, and civil society leaders who have helped shape ASEAN’s gender equality architecture since its early years. It has modelled progressive legislations as well as practices and mechanisms for human rights, violence against women and children, and gender mainstreaming across Southeast Asia. But for it to continue to honour its own legacy, break new ground, and forge new paths toward promoting gender equality through ASEAN, regional ambitions must be matched by domestic reforms. This year’s ASEAN chairship should be an important opportunity for the Philippines to also look inward and identify ways to further strengthen its credibility.

DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.

Author biographies

Athena Charanne Presto is a PhD Candidate at the School of Sociology, The Australian National University. Her work focuses on political sociology, sociology of gender, and social policy.

Maria Tanyag is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations of the Australian National University, and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow. Image credit: Unsplash/Karl Joshua Bernal.