Anywhere else, especially the Philippines, would be far too far away even for me here in Thailand.
Manila is 1,361 miles from Bangkok. Jakarta is even farther, at 1,420 miles. As I was recently in Thailand, I can easily say that the Philippines is not as far as you claim it is.
(On the other hand, it would beneficial if we had a more central location. Based on my calculations, the most central location is Vietnam. But economically, the cost of having a meeting in the Philippines, or even Indonesia, offsets the distance, as it would be cheaper to hold a meeting there than in Singapore or Malaysia.)
Currently the effort is on creating a Thai work group, if not immediately a chapter, in order to secure scholarships for Thai editors to go to 'fairly' nearby Wikimania in Hong Kong next year.
If it helps, Wikimedia Philippines contemplated establishing a fund to disburse scholarships to Wikimania for both Filipino and Southeast Asian Wikipedians in the past. It's allocated as part of our proposed budget for 2013, and should it push through we'll inform people in due time. (But don't keep your hopes up though.)
ASAIK, Thai Wikipedians were not present in Washinton.
I believe the only Southeast Asians at Wikimania this year was a Filipino (the treasurer of Wikimedia Philippines), a Malaysian, and I believe 1-2 Vietnamese people. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
If we are to consider though the general definition of what this mailing list is for (which is for everyone in Asia, from Turkey to Australia and Russia to Indonesia), there were quite a number of Asian people there: this was evidenced at the number of people who attended the Wikimedia Asia lunch at Wikimania.
Josh
JAMES JOSHUA G. LIM
Block I1, AB Political Science
Major in Global Politics, Minor in Chinese Studies
Class of 2013, Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Trustee (2010-2013), Wikimedia Philippines
Member, Ateneo Debate Society
Member, The Assembly