As for the terror threat, it is only now that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña revealed that this threat was for real… that intelligence information pointed to certain groups linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah which actually came to Cebu to carry out their plot. But because the Cebu-based Muslim community (who bestowed upon Mayor Osmeña the title of Sultan a couple of years ago) refused to support those terrorists and in the end, they really had no place to use (or hide) in order to carry out their nefarious activities. But while it is only now that Mayor Osmeña revealed this to the public… military intelligence agents still believe that there were no specific targets, which were the subject of those travel advisories sent by the foreign embassies.
When the ASEAN Summit was postponed last December and moved to Jan. 10, this brought certain difficulties that the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa also had to endure. One of them was a wedding set for Jan. 13, which could not be postponed. This was the wedding of Silvio Lugo of San Francisco to Clarice Veloso, the youngest child of former House Deputy Speaker Alberto Veloso of Leyte.
Of course, this was a nightmare not only for the Shangri-La people, but also the wedding coordinators who had to handle 130 guests, 40 of whom came from the United States. When asked why Clarice chose the Shangri-La for her wedding, she replied, "I wanted our wedding to be a showcase of Filipino culture and Visayan hospitality." All the guests had to be "sanitized" by the security for the ASEAN Summit.
During the wedding, a dear friend, a cousin of the bride, Annie Bakunawa, told me that all the guests were "protected" by the tight security given the world leaders. In short, all’s well that ends well and the Shangri-La showed its best in giving a great impression of Cebu as admitted by the world leaders, while keeping up with its normal schedules like a wedding.
Perhaps as a culmination of our successful hosting of the ASEAN Summit, we also got the news (reported by the press at the Cebu International Convention Center) that one of Cebu’s beloved sons, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., was appointed as the Philippine ambassador to the United Nations (UN). As The Freeman editorial pointed out yesterday: it was "another feather on the cap of Cebuanos."
Of course, the Estrada politicians, led by Sen. Loi Ejercito and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, fumed at this development, but as the editorial said, "Not one of the Estradas can measure up to Davide in anything that requires intelligence and integrity. In showbiz and all that it entails, however, the Estradas would outdistance the Cebuano from Argao by a thousand miles. But what do Cebuanos care?"
As we’ve said, this week the hotels in Cebu are still full, although all the ASEAN delegates and their staff, including the 1,700 media people, have already packed their bags and left, but then it is the Sinulog Week and tomorrow, we expect a record-breaking crowd to attend the solemn procession for Señor Sto. Niño and the Sinulog Festival on Sunday.
I had a short talk with Cebu Gov. Gwen F. Garcia yesterday and asked her if she was going to dance her halad (offering) during the Sinulog parade like what she did last year, and she said, "Last year, I dance the Sinulog to ask Señor Sto. Niño for his divine intervention to make the ASEAN Summit a success; now I will offer another dance to thank the Lord for granting the Cebuanos all their prayers."
Lastly, my friends kidded me for suggesting to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) that the City of Mandaue offer the use of the CICC as the official venue for the constitutional convention (con-con). But truth is Cebu has proven to the nation that we can handle tough problems like preparing for the ASEAN Summit in just a year’s notice. I’m sure that if the national government finally gives its go-signal to call for a con-con, the CICC would be the perfect venue for this political exercise… more so that Cebu is right smack in the middle of the Philippines.
These are small tidbits that are now coming out after our hosting of the ASEAN Summit. In fact, another story which never came out of the newspapers was a verbal report I got from a friend that one of the world leaders who went to Cebu last Friday suffered a mild heart attack and was rushed to a hospital in Cebu City but was released hours later after a series of tests were conducted. Again, we could not get anyone to confirm this story, thus it will continue to remain a rumor.