Barong gives relief to summiteers

CEBU — Southeast Asian leaders donned yesterday the Filipino everyman’s formal yet extremely thin attire — the barong — that provided relief in the tropical heat as they gathered for their annual summit.

It also lent a casual air to the meetings before the leaders huddled to tackle burdensome issues of terrorism, free trade, energy security and human rights.

"You look very nice," President Arroyo said, as she welcomed her Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi with a wide smile and a handshake at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa in Cebu City.

The nine other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were driven one after another aboard white golf carts to a glass-paneled room that looks out to a white-sand beach surrounded by a lush garden.

Thailand’s leader, retired general Surayud Chulanont, walked casually on the red carpet under the morning sun toward Mrs. Arroyo, who waited by the door. "Thank you very much, it’s a very nice day today," he told her.

The President asked almost everyone if they liked the shirt and received hearty handshakes and smiles in response.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was visibly fascinated by the swank resort, pointing toward the garden and sea from the leaders’ meeting room.

They later strolled out across the garden for their traditional group photo-op before settling down for business.

Fashion designer Jean Goulbourn oversaw the making of the hand-woven barong shirts — made from banana and pineapple fiber. It is so thin it cannot be worn without an undershirt.

The shirts are considered a breaker of social classes, differentiated from the other by the kind of barong material used and the status of the tailor. Barongs are worn by both rich and poor in weddings, church baptisms school graduations, and even funerals. Philippine presidents also wear barongs to their inauguration.

Powerful politicians don barongs partly to project nationalism and to escape the heat during open-air election campaigning. The rich choose more expensive fibers for their office barongs and business meetings.

The day before, rains began pouring even as officials boasted about the how the sun was shining on the summit.

Officials put out a press release Friday hailing Mrs. Arroyo, saying she brings good weather whenever she visits Cebu.

And then the rains began.

The downpour was even more poignant for Mrs. Arroyo’s government, which blamed bad weather — and not warnings of a terror attack from several Western governments — for postponing the summit last month.

Officials even gave local nuns eggs and groceries to ask them to pray for good weather for the summit.

"The sun always shines whenever President Arroyo visits Cebu," the press release said. It said the sunny skies on her arrival were a point of "unconcealed pride."

"It’s all go for the summit weather-wise," the release said.

By nightfall, when prime ministers and sultans from across Southeast Asia were arriving for their opening dinner, the umbrellas were out in force. — AP, AFP