President Marcos said that the Philippines' hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in May will still push through despite the ongoing war in the Middle East.

It will proceed as scheduled, Marcos said, but will only be a "barebones ASEAN Summit," stressing that it would only focus on key pressing topics such as supply of petroleum products, food supply, and the situation of migrant workers.

The President disclosed that he has spoken with his counterparts to ask whether or not to go ahead with the summit. They all agreed to continue as scheduled, he said.

"We have consulted with our counterparts, the 10 other member states. The question that I asked them is very simple: Because everybody is busy with the oil crisis that is going on because of the war in the Middle East, would you like to postpone the ASEAN Summit?" he said in an interview in Cavite on Friday, March 27.

"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, ipapatuloy natin ang ASEAN Summit. Ngunit, the way that we described it is that we have a—it is a barebones ASEAN Summit. We will be talking about three main subjects: the supply of petroleum and petroleum products, the supply of food, and the price of food and migrant workers," Marcos added.

The Chief Executive also said that they are looking into shortening the summit to "maybe a day and a half," stressing that "perhaps this is not the time for an elaborate preparation."

What must be done now, he added, is to engage his fellow leaders on what their next steps would be amid the impacts of the war.

"Ang kailangan talaga sa panahon na ito ay makapag-usap kami mga leaders upang malaman natin kung ano (What we need this time is to be able to talk about) what do we do in the future, what do we do for the rest of the year, what do we do, how can we help each other, and what is the ASEAN position regarding all of these shocks that are coming our way," he said.

"Tuloy tayo sa May 7, May 8. But as I said, it will be a very barebones summit which will focus very closely on those three subject matters, oil, food, and migrant workers," he added.

The other ASEAN Summit scheduled in November, however, will also push through, but only tentatively, according to the President.

He further said that he will have to consult with his fellow heads of state again, whether or not to push through with the November summit.

"Hindi natin pinag-uusapan muna yung sa November. Sa ngayon, tentatively, tuloy pa rin sa November dahil important din yun (We are not yet talking about the November summit. For now, it will take place in November tentatively because that is also important). Because the other world leaders will be coming here, galing sa Europe, China, Korea, Japan," Marcos said.

"But before we do that, siguro by September, October, magtatanong na tayo kung ano ang gusto nga gawin ang mga ibang leaders, kung makarating man sila, et cetera (perhaps by September, October, we will be asking what the other leaders want to do, if they can attend, et cetera)," he added.

The President was also asked to comment on the call of lawmakers to reduce the ASEAN budget and to instead be given to those in greater need, especially those affected by the crisis.

He said it has already been addressed.

"Ginawan na namin. Tapos na. (We have already addressed it. It's done). That's why we did this. That's exactly why we did this. One of the big reasons why we did this," he stressed.