More volunteers needed for APEC

CEBU, Philippines- The Cebu organizing committee for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is still looking for at least 150 more volunteers to augment the workforce during APEC meetings which will start on August 22.

As of Friday, the province has registered half of the 300 needed volunteers with few days left before the province closes the door for applications.

Assistant Provincial Administrator RamilAbing, who heads the local committee on operations, urged those who are interested to volunteer to apply now so they can join the second batch of volunteers to be trained on August 11 until 14.

“Kinahanglan by next week, these volunteers that we need for Apec are already ready and complete,” he told reporters.

He said the first batch of 150 students, majority of whom from the University of San Carlos, have already gone through with the training.

The local organizing committee has tapped other universities in Cebu to send student volunteers who can work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 15 days.

Provincial Information Officer Ethel Natera, in an earlier interview, noted that some schools may not be able to send students due to conflict in class schedule.

“Ang major challenge g’yud is ang schedule sa mga estudyante. We need full-time (volunteers),” she told reporters.

With this, the province is opening the slots for volunteers to fresh graduates, aged 18 to 25 years old, with good command of the English language as a qualification.

The volunteers will be assigned to assist or guide the delegates starting from their arrival, meetings, and until they leave for their hotels.

Natera said the transportation and allowance will be shouldered by the province.

“They will be given P150 per day as allowance. Food is taken care of… Ila ani ang experience being in an international event. They get to observe how international events are being organized. They will also imbibe the value of discipline,” she added.

Interested volunteers will have to go to the Provincial Information Office at the Capitol compound and submit their bio-data.

Over 3,000 delegates from different member-economies are expected to attend the international conference. The meetings will be held in Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel-Cebu, and Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa.

Four ministerial meetings are set to be held in Cebu. These are on structural reform on September 7 to 8, finance on September 10 to 11, transportation on October 8 to 10, and energy on October 12 to 14.

Cebu will also play host to APEC third senior official’s meeting on August 24 to September 6. (FREEMAN)