Shades of Imeldific as Cebu spiffs up for Asean summit



CEBU CITY: For many people in the central Phili­ppine island of Cebu, next week’s gathering of Southeast Asian leaders will be a hindrance rather than the economic blessing these sort of events are often dressed up to be.

The presence of some 6,000 armed police and troops, stepped up security and road closures for many locals spell just one thing—”chaos.”

From December 11 to 14, virtually all schools and government offices in Cebu City and the nearby towns of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu will close down for a four-day holiday for the duration of the summit.

One taxi driver, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s going to be chaos. It’s bad enough driving on ordinary days but this will be too much.

“The problem is you have to work because if you don’t, you don’t eat.”

All hotels, big and small, have raised their room rates by at least 50 percent—in some cases 100 percent or more—to reap a whirlwind from the estimated 2,000 foreign and local media, and 10,000 Asean and other delegates expected to attend the summit.

Ballooning budget

This has not gone unnoticed, least of all by Asean itself.

The chairman of the Asean Business Advisory Council, Jose Concepcion, said recently that many people had been put off making the trip to Cebu by the high room rates.

Cebu’s fiery Governor Gwen­dolyn Garcia disagreed, saying the rates are not exorbitant and describing them as a “question of supply and demand.”

One big controversy hanging over the summit is the readiness of the controversial Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), which will house the media and some 90-plus Asean-related events.

From an original budget of P250 million ($5 million) the cost has escalated to some P800 million and counting.

The CICC stands on reclaimed land in the heart of a desolate industrial area outside Cebu City. Some critics have described the grey steel structure as resembling a shopping mall without windows.

Months earlier bulldozers cleared squatter camps around the CICC and palms were planted to hide the mounds of debris.

The city council has spent millions giving the provincial capital a makeover to impress the foreign dignitaries and their wives.

Some P1.5 million has been spent just to light Osmeña Boulevard using state-of-the-art French street lighting.

Cleansing operations

An Anti-Mendicancy Task Force has cleared the streets of “psychotic vagrants” and dumped them in villages outside the city.

The small army of children who usually work the busy streets selling trinkets and flowers have been moved to shelters while many of the red light districts have been cleared of prostitutes.

Even Cebu City’s jail is to be closed down and its inmates moved so as not to offend to visitors.

Villages have been cleaned up and the rusting roofs replaced with new sheets of iron. Fishing villages near the two bridges linking Mactan Island to Cebu have also been given a makeover with a coat of green paint.

All this has led many Cebuanos to describe the preparations as “Imeldific”—referring to the former first lady Imelda Marcos who used to hide anything unsightly when visiting dignitaries came to the Philippines, usually behind whitewashed walls.

Cebu newspaper columnist Ted Aldwin Ong said locals have dubbed the preparations as “window-dressing a la Imelda.”

Sacrifice

The all important ministers’ and leaders’ meeting will be held in the luxurious surroundings of the Shangri-La Hotel on Mactan Island overlooking the Mactan Channel.

The hotel and its surroundings will be ringed by security and the media will be banned from the area except for a tightly controlled press pool to allow leaders time to “relax in a tranquil atmosphere and enjoy the surroundings,” according to one Philippine government official.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City is reported to have set aside a budget of some P10 million to wine and dine foreign media and a further two million pesos for gifts.

“The exercise is mainly aimed at the Japanese and South Korean media as these two countries provide the bulk of our tourists,” his press spokesman Nagiel Banacia told AFP.

And with power in short supply, how will Cebu cope with this sudden influx?

Not a problem, says National Transmission Co. president Arthur Aguilar.

A diesel barge has been moved in to provide additional power to the Shangri-La and extra power will be brought in from other parts of the central islands.

While the summit area will be ablaze with electricity, some parts of the Visayas islands will experience blackouts.

“There will be sacrifices,” Aguilar told a briefing recently.

--AFP