Angeles City told to prepare for APEC events in 2015

ANGELES CITY , Philippines   â€“ Despite earlier reports that the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in 2015 would be confined in Metro Manila for security reasons, Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan yesterday said he has been told to make preparations to host some 1,000 foreign participants, including APEC ministers. 

Pamintuan said he has a year and a half to rush efforts to beautify Angeles, including the removal of “ugly spaghetti wires” of phone companies who have agreed to move these underground initially in this city’s so-called “heritage district” where Spanish-era houses have been preserved.

“I have been advised to prepare to host as many as 1,000 APEC participants who could be (billeted) in our local hotels, while the ministers might stay at the Clark Freeport,” he said in his monthly media briefing.

Pamintuan said his beautification plans include building a park that would require laying a concrete plate over the Sapang Balen creek near the well-preserved Pamintuan mansion, where the Philippine Independence was first commemorated by Emilio Aguinaldo on June 12, 1899.

Roads in the area would be permanently closed for promenade, he said.

The city government has forged an agreement with the local Kuliat Foundation for the park’s funding, he said.

When the Philippines hosted the APEC Leaders’ Summit in 1996, it was held at the Subic Freeport.

This has led several local governments to express interest in hosting some APEC events in 2015. Apart from Clark and neighboring Angeles, other local governments offering to host some of the events are Cebu, Tagaytay, Subic, Albay, Iloilo, Bacolod, Boracay, and Davao.

Guillermo Luz, overall coordinator for the APEC National Organizing Committee, said some APEC meetings in the run-up to the Leaders’ Summit may be held in any of these sites that could meet their criteria, as the summit would include a total of 22 top-level meetings in the country within a 12-month period leading to the summit.

Pamintuan said the APEC preparations would include the widening of local major roads with national funds amounting to at least P100 million and the lighting of posts along the Friendship Highway at the western perimeter of Clark, also costing about P100 million. 

He bared plans to dismantle the “flower boxes” along the MacArthur Highway in the tourism and commercial district in Barangay Balibago leading to Clark, to give way to bicycle lanes.