12th ASEAN Summit: No cap on budget for foreign media

The city government's projected expenditures for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit has already gone beyond the P20 million approved by the city council but Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said no ceiling is being put in place on expenditures for the foreign media who will cover the event.

Of the P20-million budget, about P10 million is projected to be spent for the foreign media who will come to Cebu for the four-day event. Osmeña said that aside from the accommodations here in Cebu, the city government also plans to bring interested foreign media to Bohol after the summit.

However, the final budget for the foreign media will depend on the assessment of the two Filipino diplomats to Japan the city has requested to be detailed here in Cebu to help the city government deal with the foreign media.

Osmeña has requested Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to allow consul Lilibeth Pono and foreign information officer Flordelia Balite to be detailed here in the city during the summit.

The mayor said Pono and Balite "possess excellent credentials, substantial experience and the necessary linguistic skills and connections" deemed crucial to the success of the program for media people who will cover the ASEAN Summit.

Pono, a native of Cebu, used to work with the city government before she joined the country's diplomatic corps. She is currently the Philippines' cultural officer to Tokyo. Balite, who hails from Bohol and who married a Cebuano, has been handling media affairs in Tokyo since 2000 in her capacity as foreign information officer.

Pono and Balite are expected to give a seminar on diplomatic protocol for those who will be involved in the preparations of the summit.

When here in Cebu, Pono and Balite will be engaged in "media coordination activities" considering that the city government is primarily tasked to handle the foreign media covering the four-day event.

With 17 heads of state gathering, at least a thousand foreign media are expected to arrive here for the summit.

The city government is willing to provide counterpart funding for the expenses of Pono and Balite such as those for coordination, communication and transportation. The city will also handle their airfare to Cebu and back sometime in October for a week-long consultative meeting with their local counterparts.

The city is currently doing its best to pull down to P20 million the P34-million projected budget for the summit. The P29-million allocation for the 29 mountain barangays that will avail of the "Balik Bukid" program, however, will not be part of the P20 million official budget.

The "Balik Bukid" program is a security measure to minimize the number of people in the city during the four-day event.

No less than first gentleman Mike Arroyo attended the switching on of the digital clock at the Fuente Osmeña Rotunda that started the city's countdown to the ASEAN Summit. - Joeberth M. Ocao