‘APEC in Manila a success, in experience and outcome’

MANILA, Philippines - Despite public inconvenience, the Aquino administration yesterday declared the Philippines’ yearlong hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit a success.

Officials also praised the government’s handling of the week-long APEC Economic Leaders’ Meetings in Manila that capped the country’s hosting of the annual gathering.

“It was a success experience-wise, content-wise and outcome-wise,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima told The STAR.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the country’s hosting of the 21-member bloc meetings was an achievement that put the Philippines back in the global limelight.

“Just hosting an APEC is an achievement enough: it’s a collective endorsement by APEC members of the stellar performance of the Philippines,” Abad said.

“But hosting it successfully as the Aquino administration just did further raises the stature of the country before the global development arena,” he added.

Marciano Paynor Jr., chairman of the APEC 2015 National Organizing Committee (NOC), said the nearly P10-billion budget for the event may not have been completely used, thanks to good weather.

“From a logistics perspective, we were within budget. I believe we may even have savings,” Parayno said, without citing data.

“Part of the budget was for contingencies in (case of) weather-related issues,” he pointed out.

According to data from the Department of Budget and Management, a total of P9.885 billion was allotted for the APEC meetings, but only P7.913 billion was spent this year.

The remaining amount of more than P2 billion was shelled out from 2010 to 2013 as the country’s contribution to APEC. The budget was sourced from the Office of the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

For his part, Guillermo Luz, co-chair of the APEC 2015 NOC, said the Philippines accomplished its objectives in hosting the gathering, both from a “substantive and hosting point of view.”

This year’s APEC meetings marked the first time in almost two decades the Philippines served as host to the trade and economic group. The previous meetings were held in 1996 under the Ramos administration.

For security reasons during this week’s Economic Leaders’ Meetings, Malacañang banned private vehicles from plying Roxas Boulevard where the gathering was being held, and also reserved parts of EDSA as “APEC lanes.”

Despite the week being mostly a holiday, heavy traffic persisted on major highways such as EDSA, causing public inconvenience. Paynor said there needs to be a change in public mindset.

“There are always three sides to a coin: heads, tails and the thin side. Let’s always look at things positively, not negatively. And let’s not forget the thin side because more often than not, that’s where out-of-the-box solutions come from,” Paynor pointed out.

Palace refutes critics

The Aquino administration yesterday refuted the claim of critics that the Philippines actually incurred losses in hosting the APEC summit, saying the economy grew after holding the regional economic forum.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that the country’s gross domestic product before APEC stood at $3 trillion but has since “more than doubled.”

“Pre-APEC trade is $3 trillion, now it’s $21 trillion. It grew seven times,” Coloma quoted Purisima as saying.

He said exports increased by more than 15 times because of APEC.

Purisima said the Aquino administration has now prepared itself to open the local economy to foreigners since over 90 percent of the country’s economic activity is open to foreigners.

“We’ve been upgraded 22 times in the last five years. Upgrades affect the entire economy,” Purisima said, adding that the Philippines’ largest trading partners are still the US, Japan and China.

“We can cooperate with other APEC members for technical resource training, etc. The beauty of APEC is it gives us voice in important fora. Eight members of APEC are G20 members,” Purisima pointed out.  

“APEC is an opportunity to showcase why good governance is important for sound economy,” he added.

Coloma downplayed the losses that detractors have been harping about.

“Looking at the big picture, losses incurred this week will be recovered eventually in terms of continuing and sustained growth and development of the Philippine economy as a favored investment and tourism destination,” he stressed.  

“Good governance requires that decisions are based on what would be beneficial for the country and what would best serve our people’s long-term interest,” Coloma explained.  

“We acknowledge that there will be differences in viewpoints and we are willing to engage all stakeholders in meaningful dialogue as well as consider suggestions for improvement. Reasonable criticism is always welcome in a healthy democracy,” Coloma said.  

The departure of APEC leaders started yesterday with the plane of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau taking off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at 8:30 a.m.

The Canadian prime minister was later followed by leaders of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Taipei, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.

US President Barack Obama, on board the blue and white Air Force One B747, left at 12:17 p.m. bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

President Aquino also left yesterday afternoon to attend the ASEAN summit.

Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo urged the government yesterday to harness the APEC summit to advance human capital development so Filipinos could compete against their peers in the international labor market.

“APEC should be harnessed as an opportunity for human capital development, particularly through agreements covering training and technology,” he said, as 21 APEC leaders ended their annual summit here.

“The most important thing for us is to have a mindset of looking out for favorable human capital development opportunities for the Filipino worker, professional and entrepreneur,” he said.

He said the next administration should pursue the recommendations made during the APEC high-level policy dialogue on science and technology in higher education held in Manila last August.

He added that among the recommendations were: encourage implementation of mobility of science, technology and innovation experts; and advance cross-border education and inter-university collaboration on science and technology.

Romulo chairs the committee on higher and technical education of the House of Representatives. - With Rudy Santos, Jess Diaz