Monday, November 27, 2006 Seares: Where will you be this summit? By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
NOT much to tell anyone who asks that question.
At work, for private workers. At home or some place to visit or hang out, for students and public employees.
Asean summit will have little effect on routine of locals, except shuttling to and from work or leisure.
There’s no Asean activity for the public. So why fuss about crowds to the point of seeking residents’ exodus from Metro Cebu?
I don’t think people will pour onto streets to watch Asean ministers pass by. The visitors are no Manny Pacquiaos or Piolo Pascuals. Besides, nothing to see out there. The VIPs will just fleet by, in heavily tinted, bulletproof cars.
Savor fiesta mood
Ceremonial routes will be cleared. Traffic will spill over to other streets, but Cebu drivers aren’t daunted by chokepoints, which they dodge and curse or bear with and curse.
Troops will be fielded to “sanitize” sites where VIPs stay and move around. Cebu will be secure enough to meet standards of previous summit venues.
PNP Chief Oscar Calderon is confident Cebu can hack it. Unlike Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who wants to see a ghost town, Calderon urges people to come out and savor the fiesta mood.
That will be merely imagining on the streets the sight, smell, and sound of P2,500-per-plate buffets and the Leah Salonga-bannered cultural show.
To Cebuanos, that’s still good. Anyway, better than fleeing Cebu during the summit.
