The host

The speed bumps on the streets around the Philippine International Convention Center have been removed and the spots paved with asphalt. No doubt this is to ensure a smooth ride for all the dignitaries attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit to be held at the PICC.

For four days later this month, Metro Manila, the nation’s seat of government, business and employment, will shut down as daang matuwid rolls out the red carpet for APEC leaders and their delegations.

It says a lot about the country’s level of development that one international gathering can create such massive disruptions in daily life. Whoever becomes president in 2016 must aim to make the situation much improved at the end of his or her six-year term.

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As a nation that takes pride in its hospitality, there’s general agreement that guests should have a comfortable and enjoyable stay in our country. In our culture, it’s not unusual for households to give a guest the best room in the house. In modest homes, family members sleep on the couch or the floor so a visitor can have the bed.

But there’s also such a thing as efficient, long-term planning, especially since the annual hosting of APEC is rotated and we know years in advance when our country’s turn will come.

These days, as the disruptions ahead have become clear, people are wondering why the summit had to be held in crowded, polluted, traffic-choked, crime-riddled Metro Manila.

There’s a lot of griping about the massive disruptions to life in the nation’s capital for the APEC summit. This is probably because people remember only minimal disruptions when the country first hosted the annual gathering in 1996.

Then President Fidel Ramos decided Subic would be a better venue – not only because it was easier to secure, with the bay easily accommodating the naval security backups of several APEC leaders, but also because it would highlight what the Philippines had done with Olongapo and Zambales after the US naval base was shut down.

Over eight months, villas were rushed by a private contractor for the 18 APEC leaders, and their group photos had the sparkling Triboa Bay as backdrop. Ramos had his share of criticism over the pricey villas, with his successor Joseph Estrada initiating a probe, but the nation’s first APEC hosting was largely deemed a success. President Erap of course later had his own dire problems to worry about.

The villas, estimated to cost from $1 million to $2 million each, were later sold to private individuals as vacation homes or leased for special functions. For meetings in Manila, there were also special APEC lanes notably along Roxas Boulevard, but the road was never completely closed to regular traffic.

Metro Manila also faces a bay and it has enough hotels for VIPs, making it unnecessary to build villas. The National Capital Region can host a gathering of world leaders – but there are roadblocks to a smooth hosting, starting with traffic, traffic everywhere, from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to almost all streets.

Some APEC delegates may wander into the charcoal-making barangay of Ulingan in Manila and understand why author Dan Brown thought he had stumbled into the Gates of Hell.

The government has decided to play it safe, by making at least some of the problems disappear for four days. Traffic jams? Suspend classes and office work so everyone stays home, or better yet, get out of the city for a vacation.

Scenes of poverty? As in the visit of Pope Francis at the start of the year, street dwellers will reportedly be rounded up again by social welfare personnel and treated to a resort stay outside Metro Manila where the food and accommodations are definitely much better than along Manila’s sidewalks.

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Those planning to get out of town aren’t going to get too far. Flag carriers Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, whose flight schedules have become chaotic due to traffic congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, have found it prudent to simply scrap flights during those four days rather than risk lawsuits from irate passengers.

Foreign carriers get priority in runway use at the NAIA, but several may also scrap flights during the APEC meetings. Combined with the 700 flights canceled so far by PAL and Cebu Pacific, the total could reach a thousand.

Also disrupted for four days are operations at the Port of Manila, the nation’s busiest. Businessmen have not yet even fully recovered from the recent port congestion, and cargo traffic has been building up as usual in these days leading to Christmas.

I know certain food importers who were forced to resort to airfreight, absorbing the much higher logistics cost, to ensure that the quality of the items would not deteriorate. Smaller companies, which could not afford the added cost, saw their food items spoiled or deformed from sitting too long in port storage without proper temperature controls.

The importers absorbed the added cost. But with the likely new logjam due to work stoppage for APEC, they may no longer be able to hold off passing on the higher costs to consumers.

Government work is suspended for four days, except in agencies providing frontline services such as law enforcement, public health care and fire prevention. This means further delays in our chronically snail-paced judicial proceedings and processing of official documents including business permits, civil registry records, clearances for employment, vehicle registration and driver’s license.

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It’s unfair to compare our international hosting capability with those of advanced economies, but they can serve as inspirations for our improvement.

Certain cities can host a horde of world leaders at a moment’s notice. We’ve seen this during global crises when leaders deem it better to discuss issues with each other face to face.

Special gatherings such as the Olympics or World Cup require longer and much more stringent preparation, starting with facilities. Countries that pull off hosting such events have entered the big leagues. We saw this in the case of China, whose debut on the world stage through the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was a dazzling success. This was followed by the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

China had its share of criticism even from its own citizens for some of the measures implemented to ensure the success of those events, but the Chinese were mostly proud of their hosting feat.

We all like to put our best foot forward before the world, but we should aim to do this with the least disruptions to daily life. This should be our goal for our next turn as APEC host, about two decades from now.

By that time, even with classes and offices open, the roads of Metro Manila should allow a smooth ride… and not just for visiting VIPs.