Stuck in the past

The Philippines is in no enviable situation when it played host to the 27th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting. This year’s summit officially started yesterday with the arrival and welcome rites at the airport for the attending heads of the APEC member-economies. US President Barack Obama, President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia were among the world leaders who flew in yesterday one after the other.

President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III had the honor to play host and at the same time presiding chairman of this year’s summit. Only 18 of the 21 heads of the APEC economies are attending, after three of them either begged off or backed out for various reasons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin initially announced his participation, but subsequently backed out due to domestic concerns. Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Chinese-Taipei Ma Ying-jeor are also not here for the same reason. The three sent their respective representatives instead.

The APEC leaders who flew in yesterday were received by Cabinet officials assigned to each of them at the tarmac of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminals 1, 2 and 3.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was assigned to President Obama, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to President Xi and Justice Secretary Benjamin Caguioa to Prime Minister Turnbull, just to name some.

Incidentally, President Enrique Peña Nieto arrived yesterday for his pre-APEC state visit to the country. Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez is the Cabinet official-in-attendance for the Mexican President who flew in via the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.

The newest and youngest APEC leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived early last night at NAIA-2 with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala as his Cabinet official-in-attendance.

Noticeably, the giving of the country’s ubiquitous sampaguita lei to welcome our visitors was done away with in the case of President Obama. For security reasons perhaps, or maybe he is allergic to flowers.

Our estranged neighbor, President Xi of China, warmly bowed his head to receive the sampaguita lei from a female usher at the airport tarmac. Before boarding the official APEC car, President Xi, however, took the lei off and gave it to one of his Chinese close-in security escort.

The official welcome rites for participating APEC leaders will be held today at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Roxas Boulevard. Later tonight, President Aquino rolls out the red carpet for the formal APEC dinner reception for the leaders and their respective spouses and their official delegation at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.

So stay away and go nowhere near these areas if you do not want to be stranded and trapped in standstill traffic.

While we can only bear and grin with these hassles, the government’s profuse apologies could not make up for so much downtime and man hours lost due to the paralysis from the APEC summit.

Metro Manila folks, though, will have a reprieve of sorts, today and tomorrow since President Aquino had declared APEC holidays for both government and private offices, including schools. By Friday, all APEC leaders will leave for their respective destinations.

President Aquino himself is leaving for Malaysia on Friday to attend yet another summit, this time with fellow heads of states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

After this APEC summit, we will return to our normal lives, including our daily grind with traffic gridlocks in Metro Manila.

The APEC meeting is actually taking place here for the second time since its first annual summit was held almost two decades ago. Former President Fidel Ramos hosted and chaired the 1996 APEC summit here when there were only 18 APEC member-economies.

At the time, there was global economic upbeat and the Philippines was seen as among the “tiger” economies. Unfortunately, the 1997 Asian financial crisis occurred before the Philippine economy could even take off.

With less than eight months to go before he steps down, President Aquino is in a position to justify the continuing involvement of the Philippines with APEC. With the troubles and hardships made to bear upon the general public during the few days we are hosting the APEC summit, it must be worth the sacrifices of the people.

However, it was a big letdown to hear President Aquino’s address before the APEC CEOs (chief executive officers) summit held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel last Monday. He included in the narration of his government’s accomplishments three political acts of his administration.

He took pride in sending to “hospital detention” his immediate predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for plunder cases; the ouster by impeachment of former Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona and the detention of three senators for plunder charges. He cited them as part of his administration’s pursuit of “good governance” reforms.

“We had to craft and pursue a holistic national strategy, with the belief that good governance is good economics,” P-Noy told his audience.

“If ten years ago my predecessor had done what we’re doing now, I can only imagine where the Philippines would be,” P-Noy pointed out.

Are the presidential speechwriters too lazy to prepare a good speech before such a gathering of international CEOs and business leaders from the APEC member-economies?

Even on the last few months of term of this administration, President Aquino’s speech was not even forward-looking. The presidential speech merely showed P-Noy has not moved on up to now.

Sadly for us, while we will continue living with traffic gridlocks even after the APEC, P-Noy is still stuck somewhere in the past.