‘ASEAN meet to be Ilocano frugal’

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April 16, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit will have an “Ilocano effect,” according to First Lady Liza Marcos.

She made the remark during a chance interview on Tuesday at the New Executive Building inside Malacañang.

“We’re on Ilocano effect,” Marcos said when asked what adjustments have been made in the Philippines’ hosting amid the Middle East crisis that caused severe shocks to global energy markets.
Ilocanos are known to be frugal.

Marcos’ family hails from Ilocos Norte. The First Lady has been leading preparations for this year’s ASEAN Summit and related meetings to be held in Cebu in May and Manila in November.

Marcos earlier said the Philippines would push through with its hosting of the summit, but this would be scaled down to the “very bare bones.”

Meetings among leaders of the 11-member regional bloc will be shortened to a day and a half, focusing on three important issues: oil, food and migrant workers, Marcos said in an interview last month.

Executive Secretary Ralph Recto earlier said the President has ordered a recalibration of the country’s hosting of ASEAN, scaling down non-essential bloc activities to save on expenses and focus on the most important.
Recto said 650 preparatory meetings would be conducted online, “a shift which will still ensure substantial discussions and productive results.”

In October last year, Marcos praised the First Lady for her instrumental role in the successful rehabilitation of the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, one of the venues of the ASEAN meetings.
The Philippines last hosted the event in 2017.