Monday, December 11, 2006 Editorial: A breather of sorts
WHATEVER reason they may speculate concerning the postponement of the Asean summit, organizers have sufficient cause for doing so and it's not just because of the incoming tropical storm (Seniang, we believe based on TV and radio reports) not long after the two brutal onslaughts launched by typhoons Milenyo and Reming.
Reming, in particular, left the country with 1,000 people dead and millions of pesos worth of infrastructure and property damages.
As if the country has yet to recover from the devastation wrought by Milenyo, they have to deal with the casualties and damages caused by the mudflow from Mt. Mayon that swept through most of Albay province.
Given that situation, it's still a wonder how the National Government managed to spend the amounts of money for the construction of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) upgrading -- if it had already released the funds of course -- and still managed to allow the lawmakers to spend the people's money for their constituent assembly antics.
With that in mind, the delay in the Asean summit opening would somehow give the Cebu provincial government the time it needs for last-minute repairs -- that is if they haven't completed the structures and facilities needed already.
And the local officials can breathe a sigh of relief at the millions to be saved from traffic and operational expenses at least until January next year.
The postponement was also cited as a response to earlier reports of terror attacks by the US and British governments. So what if the organizers chose to postpone the event because of their advisories?
Better safe than sorry, one can always reason, though this is no foolproof guarantee that there won't be any terror attacks come January.
Another reason would be the fear of losses in income and sales that may be lost with the opening of the Asean summit, which supposedly called for a holiday period of sorts. With the postponement, the traders in Cebu can make a final push to up their profit margin towards the end of the year, giving them something of a breather as they look forward with better hopes for 2007.
Finally, with all the hoopla and intensified national sentiments over the Charter change campaign waged courtesy of House Speaker Jose de Venecia and his minions in Congress, one thinks the country can ill afford to sustain two "heart attacks" in a row should something horrendous occur during the summit while trouble-makers take advantage of the brewing political tension in the country to stir up anarchy on their own.
The summit postponement is in a way, a breather from the tumultuous and topsy-turvy socio-political situation in the country. While this does not in anyway serve to underestimate the country's resiliency and tenacity to handle and withstand critical times, it's useful every now and then to take a break from these "hassles" and focus on other problems at hand, not the least of which is this Charter change (monkey) business.
