For rescheduled ASEAN Summit: Nothing definite about holidays

It is not yet definite if Malcañang would declare a holiday for the duration of the rescheduled 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Cebu next week.

The Cebu Organizing Committee has recommended that only January 12 and 15 be declared holidays since the two days in between them would be a Saturday and Sunday.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor, Secretary General of the National Organizing Committee, said in a telephone interview that the recommendation was drafted yesterday during a meeting with the Office of the Executive Secretary and upon consultation with the local government units here in Cebu.

Paynor said, the local government units have recommended a four-day holiday from January 12 to 15, but because January 13 and 14 fall on a weekend, the COC deemed it appropriate to only recommend to Malacañang January 12 and 15.

Paynor explained that the holidays can only be declared if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issues an executive order. If there would be one, Paynor said that they expect it to be released this week.

Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros, spokesperson of the ASEAN Summit told The Freeman earlier that senior officials of the participating countries would start arriving on January 9.

Lecaros also said the heads of state are expected to arrive on January 12, as their meetings would start on the 13th. The other meetings with dialogue partners would commence on January 14.

Cebu City information officer Nagiel Banacia, the city's representative to the COC, said Cebu City is yielding to the recommendation of the COC despite the statement of Mayor Tomas Osmeña that he would not prefer the declaration of a holiday.

Banacia said that the COC might have also considered Osmeña's earlier position for a holiday during the summit to give Cebuanos a chance to go out-of-town and decongest the city streets allowing security forces to focus their efforts on securing the delegates.

However, after the summit, which was originally set last month, was postponed, Osmeña changed his stand. He said that he is no longer amenable to a holiday, because the benefit "is not maximized."

Osmeña explained that his stand has changed because people would not have time to plan what they are going to do due to the short notice. "They may not believe you anyway because you're notoriously inconsistent," Osmeña said, referring to the botched schedule of the summit last month.

Osmeña said he would want to prevent the same incident last month wherein Cebuanos were disheartened when a holiday was already declared yet did not push through because the summit was postponed. Since the holiday was declared months before the summit's original schedule, many have already made out-of-town plans.

Students who went home after classes were cancelled for the summit had to struggle to come back when schools reopened after the announcement of the postponement of the summit.

Meanwhile, Department of Education Regional Director Carolino Mordeno said that DepEd is still waiting for an order whether or not to suspend classes during the event.

Mordeno said that there is no order yet released by the central office.

However, if a holiday will be declared in the summit venues, the DepEd will automatically suspend classes. "But the schools will still have to pay for the no class days through remedial classes which is done on Saturdays to cope up with the missed days and comply with the required class days for this year," Mordeno said.

Yesterday, the augmentation force of 1,420 military and police personnel from all over the country started returning to the city.

There are no significant changes from the original security plans and the dry run for the closure of the ceremonial routes would start tonight.

The summit was called off last month just two days before it was supposed to officially start on December 10. The NOC said that it was typhoon Seniang that caused the postponement, but some suspected it was triggered by terrorism threats and the political storm brewing in Manila.

Incidentally, the postponement came just a day after the United States, Britain and Australia issued warnings of a threat of terrorist attack in Cebu during the summit.

And even as observers say it was already difficult for the heads of state to reconvene, Paynor said that it was already agreed, without exception, that all delegations would reconvene the earliest possible time at a time available to everyone.-(/NLQ)