CICC now finished, but summit is reset

By now, you must have read or heard the news last Friday coming from Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., head of the National Organizing Committee (NOC), that the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit has been postponed to January. The much-awaited and controversial holding of the Asean Summit was postponed in one official statement from Ambassador Paynor — "The Philippine government arrived at this decision in consultation with the governments of the leaders participating in the Cebu summits.... The Cebu summits will be held in January of 2007" — which was given during a press briefing at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). However, Ambassador Paynor pointed out that the ASEAN Ministerial Meetings would still push through and that the NOC has not yet decided the exact date for the rescheduled summit. The reason given for the postponement of the Leaders’ Summit was the approaching typhoon Seniang (international codename: Utor). As of press time, Seniang was no longer expected to directly hit Cebu and would have passed the Philippines by this time. In fact, the rains in Cebu City began only last Saturday.

The speculation here was that the postponement was due to a terror alert as headlined by The Philippine STAR last Friday, "US, UK, Australia Warn of Summit Terror Risk," while The Freeman headline blared, "Cebu Target of Attack, US, UK Warn." If you ask me, typhoon Seniang was God-sent as it presented the NOC a good excuse to postpone the Asean Summit as the security group digs into the bottom of this terror report by the US, UK and Australia. Call them cautious to a fault, but if there is anything that we Cebuanos wouldn’t want on our hands is for a terror plot to succeed while we are hosting the Asean Summit.

It’s too bad that the 12th Asean Summit was reset, while the 4th Asean Business and Investments Summit pushed through without a hitch. But at least, this postponement gave more time for the NOC to tie the so-called "loose ends" in the hosting of the summit. At least, no one can say that the summit was postponed because the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) could not be completed on schedule.

Last Friday, at 10 a.m., the province of Cebu and the City of Mandaue held the formal inauguration and blessing of the CICC with no less than his beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal officiating the Holy Mass right during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. All I could say is that, it was a proud moment for Cebuanos to be holding the Holy Mass at the plenary hall of the CICC and yes, it is completely finished for the use of the Asean Summit.

In his message, no less than Cardinal Vidal chastised the crab mentality within the hearts of many of our fellow Cebuanos, especially those in the media, saying, "We need to let go of the usual crab mentality, of envy and malice, of nitpicking and fault-finding. We need to set ourselves free from ideological straightjackets. We need to think out of the box for the sake of the common good. Let us always set the welfare of the poor in mind, knowing that development is not fully attained unless the most marginalized of all citizens are able to partake of its fruits." All I can say is… ouch! Was the Cebu prelate pointing to certain individuals who criticized the CICC on a daily basis?

Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia was quite passionate in her speech, saying, "For every stone we laid, a stone was thrown our way… for every brick we laid, we got brickbats. When the challenge to build the CICC was hurled to us, it was a challenge beyond our human expectations and when we got weary, God carried us to the end." She gave thanks and praise to Cardinal Vidal for his full support, complete with a special prayer offered after every Mass heard in the province of Cebu for the success of the summit.

After the Mass was over, I had a long talk with Cardinal Vidal who intimated to me that someone in Manila warned him not to stay too long inside the CICC as the roof might collapse. Sorry for the detractors of the CICC, the roof didn’t cave in and as what Gov. Garcia said, "The CICC represents what Cebu is!"

To be totally honest, it was my first time to be inside the CICC. While I have been monitoring the construction, I have been seeing it from the outside. As for the work inside, I relied mostly on the information given to the press. Frankly, I had full faith and confidence in the "can do" spirit of the Cebuanos, that we can do things that others could only wish we couldn’t do. Yes, the CICC was finished in the nick of time… but with the postponement of the Asean Leaders’ Summit, we can even go into the minute details, looking more into the quality of the finishing.

Of course, the postponement means classes should return to normal, including the traffic. While others look at this as a loss, I look at this as a golden opportunity to host the summit in the new year of 2007. For me, 2006 was a very bad year… as the Chinese believe that the Year of the Dog is not good for people like me who are born in the Year of the Rabbit. Because of the summit, the roads in Metro Cebu have been paved, painted and landscaped — more than enough reason to thank President Arroyo for allowing Cebu to play host.

Incidentally, as I entered the main hall of the CICC, I ran smack into former President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR), who belongs to the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) for ASEAN. Without batting an eye, FVR took me aside and immediately gave me a copy of his press statement batting for ASEAN to address "for its own advantage, the major shifts in the Asian landscape brought about by the rise of China and India, and Asia’s widening links with the rest of the world." Let me say that FVR and I think alike 95 percent of the time and yes, I will write more details about this in the next columns.

What FVR is saying can be seen from what was discussed in the 4th ASEAN Business and Investments Summit… that for instance, Japanese investments in the ASEAN nations were at 9.6 percent, while they put in only 5.45 percent in China. Clearly, the Japanese see more advantages in putting their money in ASEAN than in China, hence the need for ASEAN integration ASAP!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website (www.philstar.com). He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable. Bobit’s columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com.