The Philippines can play a "lead" role in regional peace-keeping efforts amid global tensions, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said.

Stressing that the country has a vital role to play, particularly amid the Ukraine-Russia war, the US-China tension over Taiwan, and the recent missile testing by North Korea, Marcos said the Philippines does not have a choice but to take a leadership role, at least in the regional level.

He pointed out that if Russia uses tactical nuclear warheads against Ukraine and it becomes acceptable, it might encourage other nuclear powers to do the same, elevating the global uncertainty to a new level.

“So we have a very important part to play in that because we have a great interest. It must be a subject of central concern in our foreign policy and in the defense of the nation in the Philippines,” he said during a gathering organized by the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) on Oct. 6.

"So I do not think we have a choice. We must play a leadership role because it is in our interest. And if we do not do it, we are not doing our jobs as the protectors of our country, of our state, of our territory, of our people, if we do not take that leadership role," he further said.

Marcos suggested that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must be strengthened to make it more responsive to future challenges and to enable the regional bloc to do more than what it has accomplished so far.

He revealed that he actually intends to propose several actions the ASEAN can take amid various regional conflicts during his future engagements with countries within the region.

“And in fact, in the upcoming ASEAN conferences that are coming up in November, I intend to propose several actions that ASEAN can take specific to the different conflicts that we are seeing in our region,” he said.

He stressed that ASEAN member countries must present a united front, noting it is the best way forward simply because of the moral suasion of several ASEAN members, which is more effective than just doing the negotiation bilaterally.

“I think we should continue to try and push our member neighbors to present that united front and to move that united front forward so that we can say that ASEAN, a geopolitical aggrupation, economic aggrupation, has certainly shown that it has a function to do in the normal scheme of the geopolitics,” he said.

READ MORE: Marcos intends to propose ‘several actions’ to ASEAN in handling regional conflicts