Friday, January 12, 2007 Roperos: The summit opens By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
AFTER some crucial, demoralizing moments, the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit will finally take off today in Cebu City.
It is no mean feat for the organizers of the event. All the media roasting, speculations and criticisms they received since October would have driven the weak-kneed, half-seasoned, less determined spirit to “sweet surrender,” as a line in a popular ditty goes. Even when the climax of the preparation was aborted, they stayed on.
Now, they are on the verge of an exhilarating redemption and fulfillment. When the summit ends on Monday, what will be left for us to do is to sit and wait for the feedback.
We will then know if the earlier prophecies of doom and speculations of economic rewards will turn out true. Either way, the summit hosting will have become a learning experience that can put Cebu in good stead next time.
After all is said and done, what everyone can do from here on is pray that nothing untoward will happen during the four-day affair and that all the security preparations will hold and allow no hitches in the scheduled events. The less the problems there will be, the better for us.
As to the cost of the hosting, let’s talk about it after the visitors have left. It is an embedded part of our hospitality not to talk about expense when the visitors are still around.
I cannot, for the life of me, see what our detractors and oppositionists and habitual demonstrators will profit from disturbing the course of the summit with their placards and raucous behavior. Their demos may belittle the Arroyo administration but the visitors could not really care less since it is our domestic problem.
Anything that would create a hitch in the summit will only redound to the shame of the Filipino, not the Arroyo administration alone. It is the Filipino image and honor in the international community that is at stake here.
The few thousands of people playing counterpoint to the summit tempo do not represent the true sentiment of the Filipino towards the Asian community. What it may generate instead is the smeared and diminished portrait of the Philippines in the Asian’s eyes.
The prospect of the Philippines becoming an international tourist destination as well as a center for conventions and conferences after the summit will be affirmed if the initial hosting effort will turn out to be a glorious success.
Indeed it is not a quirk of fate but perhaps the hand of Divine Providence that the Asean members agreed to hold the 12th summit here. The fact that we are doing it with ease as if we got it not on a silver platter but rather through hard work should make us value the experience.
Representatives of nations scheduled to attend the original schedule of the summit last December will all be here and has started arriving the other day. And so far, no untoward incidents have occurred.
We should cross our fingers and continue to hope and pray that the smooth unfolding of the international meeting will remain so until next Monday.
