Claim: All world leaders who attended the 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit are members of monarchies.

The video containing the claim also alleged that the real reason why President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was invited to the summit was that the ASEAN leaders knew that he also has royal blood. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube video containing the claim has over 1,300 likes, 131 comments, and 18,077 views as of writing.

ASEAN countries with monarchies: According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) The World Factbook, only four ASEAN member states have existing monarchies:

• Brunei – absolute monarchy headed by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah
• Thailand – constitutional monarchy headed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, also known as King Rama X
• Cambodia – parliamentary constitutional monarchy headed by King Norodom Sihamoni 
• Malaysia – federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy headed by Sultan Abdullah of Pahang

Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah attended this year’s ASEAN Summit. Bolkiah and Marcos had their first formal meeting as heads of state at the sidelines of the summit.

According to the official website of the Cambodia ASEAN Secretariat, Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha attended the summit and represented Thailand, while Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is the current chair of ASEAN.

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismael Sabri Yaakob was unable to attend the ASEAN Summit and Malaysian Speaker of the House of Representatives Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun led the country’s delegation.

Other ASEAN states: The rest of the ASEAN member states do not have monarchies. According to the CIA The World Factbook, the Philippines and Indonesia are presidential republics, Laos and Vietnam are communist states, and Singapore is a parliamentary republic.

Burma or Myanmar is also a parliamentary republic. However, ASEAN barred Myanmar from attending this year’s ASEAN Summit for its failure to meet its commitments to cease hostilities in the country.   

Topics discussed: The list of statements and declarations made during this year’s summit is publicly available on ASEAN’s official website. 

The list shows that regional and global security, economic development, food security, and trade negotiations with other trading blocs were discussed during the summit. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

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