Heavy costs for state of paranoia

The Rizal Monument in Luneta, Manila has been lit up with our country’s tricolors. The base of the monument of the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal is illuminated at night with colored spotlights – blue, white, and red, from left to right. 

Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Ramon Jimenez told us the Rizal monument lighting was meant to demonstrate our country’s “solidarity“ with the French people after 129 people were killed in simultaneous suicide bombing attacks in Paris last November 13. “The monument lighting has also been improved for Christmas season,” Jimenez candidly added.

 The lighting of the Rizal Monument is a joint project of the DOT and the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC) to enhance and promote the monument as the icon of the Philippines. The lighting project is thus aptly named “Lights On For Christmas.”

The famous Eiffel Tower in Paris turned off its lights to mourn for the victims. On the other hand, some countries have lit up their most iconic landmarks with the French tricolor to show solidarity against such mindless acts of terrorism as what happened in Paris. Among the first ones were the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil; the London Eye in United Kingdom; and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

A captioned photo of the lighted Rizal Monument is posted on ‘’The Philippines’’ Facebook page of the DOT. ‘’In solidarity with the people of Paris, the Philippines lights up the Rizal monument with the colors of the French flag,’’ it says. The same caption included the message of President Aquino to the French people after the Paris terrorist attacks:?“We stand with France now, in the firm belief that the light must never dim in Paris.’’

The French flag has the same colors as the Philippine flag, except the latter has yellow-colored sun and three stars.

The tricolored lights of the Rizal Monument were turned on starting last Monday, coinciding with the holding here of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ summit.

The Rizal Monument is official site of the traditional wreath-laying activity for welcome rites to state visitors in the country. President Enrique Ruiz Nieto of Mexico was the last to lay wreath at the monument upon his arrival for a state visit before joining the APEC summit.

Later today, the few remaining 17 APEC leaders who came here to attend the summit would have flown to their respective destinations. We can all heave a collective sigh of relief that the APEC summit is done and over, without any major incident.

Except for the few incidents of clashes between anti-APEC groups and crowd-control operatives, Philippine National Police (PNP) director-general Ricardo Marquez deserves plaudits as the head of APEC security task forces.

Not all are happy though with how our daily living in Metro Manila has been placed in near paralysis for almost a week. Motorists and commuters as well dealt with horrific standstill after major road arteries were closed down to traffic due to extreme security paranoia.

Of course, students could only be so happy with the suspension of classes. But they have to make up for lost school hours from their vacation during APEC week.

We cannot ignore however the huge amount of economic losses of business establishments along these road closures. At the behest of the government, daily wage earners and workers were also forced to go on vacation without pay during the APEC summit. How about the cancelled domestic and international flights which industry estimates could reach up to $2 billion?

Easily, we can blame terrorism like the most recent Paris suicide bombing attacks for such extreme state of paranoia.

Terrorism definitely has changed the way of life of the people around the world. But most especially, terrorism has brought to extreme level of paranoia our police and other law enforcement authorities in charge of securing the safety of our people and not just very important people (VIPs) who came here for the APEC summit.

We can now lock horns with the bright minds behind the arbitrary “lockdowns” of areas even so far away from the APEC summit events. They came up with the term “lockdown” to denote no moving vehicles, except those with APEC event-related car passes, and no persons would be allowed to stay nor move around unless bearing valid APEC identification card within the “lockdown” area.

It is understandable to implement lockdown at the reclamation grounds in Pasay City where the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) and the SM Mall of Asia are located because these were the venues of summit activities.

The PNP chief says there is “no overkill” to secure these APEC VIPs. Fine.

The bright minds at the Presidential Security Group (PSG) who decided to “lockdown” Intramuros starting last Wednesday night should have their heads examined. The lockdown was for the scheduled tour the next day of APEC spouses by the presidential sisters around the historic “Walled City.” They were accompanied by Jimenez, who as DOT Secretary, supervises the Intramuros Administration.

These bright minds could have checked with the DOT Secretary to understand that Intramuros is a half-residential and half-commercial area in Manila. When a high-profile VIP like Pope Francis came to visit the Manila Cathedral at the heart of Intramuros last January, there was no such lockdown that paralyzed residents and business establishments within the so-called Walled City.

In fact, people from all walks of life came in droves to personally see the Pope at the Manila Cathedral. By the way, the incumbent PNP chief also handled the overall security provisions during the pope’s entire visit in Manila and in Tacloban City, Leyte.

That was before Marquez was promoted to PNP chief. The zero-incident Pope’s visit under the helm of Marquez supposedly enabled him to edge out other candidates for PNP chief.

Pope Francis and his official entourage were, of course, a far cry from the 17 heads of the APEC member-economies who came for the summit. Adding more security challenges to the APEC summit is the fact that this international gathering takes place at the heels of the Paris suicide bombing attacks.

We, Filipinos, like the rest of the global community, have to bear the costs of such high state of paranoia due to terrorism. But are we not scaring ourselves too much, way beyond the realistic threats?