Covering the 15th Asean Summit in Thailand

Our special presentation on our talkshow on Straight from the Sky tonight, we help introduce to you a foundation that recently made its mark here in Ceb: The Children of Asia Foundation that helps poor children get educated and released from the bondage of poverty. While the Children of Asia Foundation has been around in Asia for sometime now, they are now in Cebu helping out in our poor communities.

This year, the Children of Asia will be having its annual Charity Ball in Paris to gather funds for their projects. The Debutante for the Charity Ball comes from the Ayala family. What is very important for Cebu is that the proceeds earned from the Charity Ball will go directly to the projects of the Children of Asia Foundation in Cebu City.  We have Ms. Deena Pages, President of Children of Asia Foundation in Cebu, Ms. Edisa Lendio, Social Worker, and Ms. Anouck Justafre, French volunteer Social Worker assigned in Cebu . Watch this show in SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm.

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Cha-am, Hua Hin , Thailand :  I’ve been in Thailand since Thursday upon the invitation of our good friend, Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde together with the Malacañang Press group to cover the 15th ASEAN Summit, which I thought was held in Bangkok. As we arrived at the fabulous Suvarnabhumi International Airport, we took a coaster from the airport straight into the resort municipalities of Cha-am, Hua Hin, some 300 plus kilometers south of Bangkok . We left at 2:30pm and arrived at 5:30pm.

What surprised us in that trip was that, it was on a six-lane straight and long Freeway with the vehicle pushing 120 kph. It was an opportunity to see the countryside of Thailand along the Gulf of Thailand. While everyone knows or may have been to the famous Phuket or Pattaya resort town, this was the first time I have heard and seen the Cha-am, Hua Hin area. What surprised me was that, it was a major tourist destination in Thailand with famous hotels like Holiday Inn, Marriott, Hilton, Dusit Thani, Sofitel, Sheraton Hua Hin and many other resort hotels.

The trip also afforded me the opportunity to see up close what the Malacañang press people do whenever they accompany the President on her foreign travels. I was with the advance party so we could prepare everything that the President requires during her stay in Thailand.

Because we already covered the 12th ASEAN Leaders Summit in Cebu, it was there that I learned that the Press Center wasn’t in the Summit venue, but at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). The same was true in Thailand where the Press Center was at the Sheraton Hua Hin, while the Summit venue was at the Dusit Thani Hotel.

The Sheraton had two conference halls full of computers, but with so many press people attending the Summit, we had to elbow with other journalists to use these computers. I brought my laptop, but then there were no available tables with Internet connection as those who lived in the Sheraton were able to get into those tables earlier than us.

A few people who were with me on this trip were Assistant Secretary Maribel Dario, Antonio Albano President and CEO of RPN9, Jose Isabelo Chairman of NBN4, Ben Rosario of the Manila Bulletin, Saturnino “Freddie” Abando of NBN4, Alvin Baltazar News Reporter Radyo ng Bayan, Joyce Panares Manila Standard, Alfredo Reyes Presidential close-in photographer, Lorina delos Reyes Advance MARO Officer, Aguinaldo “Boy” Florencio NBN 4 and Teotilde Mendoza MARO Project officer.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde arrived with the President last Saturday noon, but the President did not waste her time to freshen up, but proceeded to the Dusit Thani Hotel, while we waited for Cerge at the Sofitel Centara Grand Resort and Villas Hua Hin where the President was also staying. One would think that now that he was away from the President, Cerge could now relax. On the contrary, he held a staff meeting in his suite to point out the important details that the Philippines would be pushing for the ASEAN Summit. Indeed, we were all at work at the ASEAN Summit.

Three points we got was what we reported yesterday, that the Philippines would be chairman and host for the ASEAN Disaster Management Committee in 2010. Then the Philippines also offered to host the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the third was the adoption of the Philippine proposal for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and welcomed the Philippine Presidency of the May 2010 NPT Review Conference that would work together to achieve a successful outcome of the three pillars of nuclear disarmament, nuclear nonproliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

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