Sunday, December 24, 2006 Cabaero: Summit venue By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
NOW that the dates for the re-scheduled 12th Asean Summit have been set, the next issue to be resolved would be the venue.
Cebu is it, so far; but as to what places in Cebu or which cities within the metropolitan area would play host to which event, these have yet to be announced.
Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano floated an idea during the Sun.Star online chat with him last Dec. 19 that might be worth considering. The idea is to limit summit events to Mandaue and Lapu-lapu cities, especially if the schedule of activities would coincide with huge Sinulog events in Cebu City.
The downside to this idea, however, is on how Cebu City would take to being excluded from the summit itinerary. The fate of the planned tour around spots in Cebu City and events at the Provincial Capitol and elsewhere in the city would have to be deliberated on.
The intention, I suppose, isn’t to exclude Cebu City from being a summit venue but to find a way to ensure a smooth and logical holding of two huge and simultaneous events.
It is because of the expected crowd control problems that the option of limiting heightened security, the controlled traffic flow and other summit-related measures within specific boundaries, makes sense.
The National Organizing Committee has finalized the new dates for the summit. Foreign ministers would meet on Jan. 10 and 11, and the Southeast Asian Leaders' and the East Asia Summits would be on Jan. 12 to 15. Sinulog events will be held, too, on some of those dates.
Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., National Organizing Committee secretary-general, said there would be more than 40 meetings, most of them to be held at the Cebu International Convention Center located in Mandaue City. Summit venues are yet to be finalized.
Mayor Ouano told Cebuanos here and abroad who joined the online chat at www.sunstar.com.ph/chat.html, he wants it studied that summit events be held “in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities only because of the Sinulog.”
The chat, part of the “Online Talks” series of the Sun.Star website and the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper, provided a venue for Cebuanos in the United States, Canada and here to interact directly with their mayor.
The choice of where the summit events would be held is crucial to ensuring success. Organizers have to study this in consultation with Cebu leaders.
Picking where events would be held is as important as picking the new summit dates because, aside from the question on the availability of facilities, we have the second and third weeks of January as peak tourism periods because of the Sinulog.
