The 15th ASEAN Summit

CEBU, Philippines - The Freeman is lucky that Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde, the only Cebuano that I know who has ever held this title, is one of our own. A couple of months ago, Cerge called to invite this writer to cover the President’s travel to New York for the opening of the United Nation’s General Assembly, but as luck would have it, my US visa expired so I had to beg off.

The next trip I was supposed to go was to the UK, Saudi and Turkey, but the invitation coincided with my familiarization tour to Dubai. Last Oct.21, Cerge once more called to ask me if I was available to cover the 15th ASEAN Summit in Thailand. Since it wasn’t a busy week, I jumped on board with the Malacanang Press Corps all of whom I met at the Centennial Terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The group was composed mostly of the staff of the Office of the Press Secretary like Assistant Secretary Maribel Dario, Faye Velasco, Presidential Close-in-Writer; Francisco Alfredo, close-in-photographer of the President; Teotilde Mendoza, Media Project Officer; Lorina delos Reyes, Advance Media Officer; Raquel Tobias, NBN Reporter; Freddie Abando, Senior News Reporter of NBN 4; including NBN Chairman Jose Isabelo and RPN9 President & CEO Antonio “Tonypet” Albano, Manila Bulletin reporter Ben Rosario and Joyce Panares of Manila Standard. I represented The Philippine Star and The Freeman.

We took a PAL Airbus to Suvarnabhumi International Airport and took two Coasters to the twin municipalities of Cha-am, Hua Hin, 300 plus kilometers south of Bangkok on a three hour freeway ride. Hua Hin turned out to be a resort town, akin to our Boracay, but even better in the sense that the major hotels are located there like Holiday Inn, Marriott, Sheraton and many other Asian hotels like the Dusit Thani Hotel or the Sofitel Centara where Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Cabinet Secretaries stayed.

We arrived two days before the president’s entourage arrived because she decided to stay put in Manila for one more day due to a lingering typhoon. We stayed at the Chan Chay Hotel, not far from the Sofitel Centara Resort. That gave the Malacanang staff ample time to prepare for the things that the President would require during the ASEAN Summit.

During the ASEAN Summit, we all got strategic positions at the two Press Rooms of the Sheraton Hua Hin where the main Press Center was located. However the main ASEAN Summit was held at the Dusit Thani Hotel, but true to ASEAN Summit form, only certain press cards were allowed inside the Dusit Thani and another set of press cards allowed inside the meeting halls. Our press cards allowed us to be at the Dusit Thani Hotel, where we could ambush interview foreign ministers, many of whom were accommodating. But not the Presidents or the Prime Ministers as they have their Information or Press Secretaries to do that.

After a long and hectic day, waiting for reports coming from the Press Center and personal interviews with our cabinet secretaries, Sec. Cerge Remonde gathered his staff for a casual dinner at the Rashnee Thai Cuisine, a restaurant he dined in during a previous trip. While inside the restaurant, we couldn’t help but notice that a signed photograph of Cerge was placed conspicuously on the main hall of the restaurant where the only other photographs were that of the King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

We joked with Cerge that he must have paid someone to put it there… although we later figured out that the restaurant staff most probably knew that the Philippine Delegation was billeted at the Sofitel Centara Resort, very close to the restaurant and wanted to show off the photo of Cerge to their Filipino clients.

After the dinner, we brought the Press Secretary back to his hotel, where the President was having a gala dinner, but an aide asked for him, so Cerge dragged me along in our casual clothes and joined the President’s table.

The next day was the final day of the Summit and another day of gathering news reports about the activities of the ASEAN Leaders. The President left at 5:00 p.m. from the Hua Hin Airport and we all left for Bangkok an hour later to take the trip back to Manila the following day.