EDITORIAL — Threats to the ASEAN Summit

Local officials, rendered proud by the fact that Cebu will be hosting the ASEAN Summit in December, are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the hosting will be a huge success. As such, there efforts deserve the support of the Cebuano public.

There are two concerns, however, that our local officials should really put a finger on. Unless they keep an eagle's eye on these two concerns, they could literally and figuratively blow up in all of our faces.

The two concerns are the very real threats to the ASEAN Summit posed by both terrorist groups and disgruntled political/military elements. These two will do anything and everything to disrupt this gathering of regional leaders just to discredit the Philippine government.

The summit itself is not a real target. Any attack on the summit will not translate into any positive achievement by the attackers. But an attack will certainly undermine the credibility of the government and render it even weaker than before.

This government is being primed for a takeover. It does not matter whether the takeover is in accordance with some itchy ideological agenda or just a plain unadulterated pursuit of political power for as long as the takeover is eventually carried out.

What makes the possibility of acts that tend to undermine the credibility of government taking place so dire and urgent is that they will not only prime government for a takeover, they will also further shred what tattered image remains of the country before its neighbors.

The humiliation and pain the country will suffer if we drop our guard and let hooligans ruin our party will be difficult to endure. And even if we can endure the humiliation and pain, there will be no way we can repair the damage to our reputation in the short run.

Reputation is everything in international relations, more so for a country like ours whose struggling economy cannot survive without outside assistance. The summit may be a strategic planning session for the region. But it is also an internal fight for survival for us.