Postscript

Hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is rotated. The memorable moment preserved for every host, if you look back at the forum’s history, is the annual costume party. In this area our hosting was a success; Paul Cabral’s barong Tagalogs looked good on every APEC leader – although this could be my biased Pinoy opinion.

APEC hosting is for an entire year, and not just for APEC night when a cultural show over dinner can prove too long for exhausted leaders preparing for a few more summits in Kuala Lumpur. Several APEC preparatory meetings were held in our popular destinations so let’s hope the delegates came away with positive impressions of their stay here.

As for more substantive matters, the region has been moving toward freer trade since the APEC forum was launched. But we are moving slower than others, thanks to our protectionist Constitution and the powerful vested interests that want to retain their monopolies and oligopolies in many areas of our economy. A number of those powerful interests were represented at the APEC events, expressing support for inclusive development.

If the gauge of success is that no harm came to any APEC leader or delegate and no one was delayed for any appointment due to Manila’s infernal traffic, then of course the hosting was a success – although only during the lockdown period. In the months before the summit, those who attended the APEC preparatory meetings surely experienced the gridlocks and saw the street dwellers of Metro Manila. They were surely warned about the tanim-bala or bullet planting scandal at the NAIA and the risk of kidnapping.

But they must have also enjoyed the genuine warmth of ordinary Pinoys and the vibrancy of a mega-city – something missed by APEC leaders in their security cocoon.

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Security officers and some people involved in the preparations for APEC 2015 are congratulating each other and defending the lockdowns as a necessary evil. For sure they have the ear of President Aquino, who doesn’t like hearing bad news.

When P-Noy is done reveling in the self-congratulatory praise releases, he might want to listen to the radio for other views. With just seven months left in his term, maybe he no longer wants to be bothered by public carping. But his party wants six more years in power, and to get that wish it needs the votes of much more than the .001 percent that enjoyed the weeklong lockdowns.

I used a car pass for APEC week, which was useful because my daily ride takes me around the entire lockdown area. And having been both a regular commuter and motorist most of my life I could see that a lot of the public suffering during the week was unnecessary and could have been avoided with more efficient traffic management.

People were actually prepared for the “APEC lanes” – there were several dry runs with traffic barriers along Roxas Boulevard and adjacent routes. The entire southbound lane would have sufficed, with all the cops plucked from the provinces standing guard along the route, as in the visit of Pope Francis, instead of sitting around in many street corners where their presence was not needed.

As I’ve written, allotting special lanes for visiting dignitaries was the safe and sensible thing to do. I’m a big believer in giving foreigners – not just VIPs but ordinary tourists – a safe stay and a good impression of our country.

But if people knew the entire Roxas Boulevard, its service road and parallel streets would be locked down for several days, with Coastal Road, Macapagal Boulevard, a long stretch of EDSA plus the Skyway also arbitrarily closed for hours on end, there would have been loud protests.

The entire Roxas Boulevard plus parallel streets turned into a ghost town for a week. Rizal Park was all lit up and lovely, but no one was around to appreciate it. Even people forced to walk a long way to work because the park and the entire Intramuros were locked down were in no mood to appreciate anything good about APEC week.

Already P-Noy must be seeing the impact of reverting Intramuros back to a real walled city for a night and a day. His elder sisters – three of the most unassuming people I have met (I don’t know Kris personally so I can’t describe her) – have found themselves in the uncharacteristic role of villains for that well-meaning ladies’ lunch.

The impression of insensitivity was compounded by the lack of provisions for assisting people stranded by the lockdowns. This is not surprising, though; unlike its predecessor, daang sarado does not even field vehicles to transport people stranded by flooding in Metro Manila.

* * *

Security officials are supposed to conduct an assessment of the measures imposed for the APEC summit. Considering their initial comments, however – reinforced (unsurprisingly) by praise from the son and namesake of the late dictator – we could be in for more security overkill each time there’s a visiting VIP.

It’s a lazy way of securing people in a mega-city, and it makes you understand why traffic in Metro Manila is such a mess. With the road network inadequate as it is, public officials including cops often treat roads as their own. Barangay officials close off streets even in traffic-choked districts so they can hold a birthday party or a saklaan session. Traffic flow is stopped suddenly to make way for a funeral procession with a moonlighting motorcycle cop or two at the lead. By the time the procession has passed, there’s a monstrous gridlock.

This was the same mindset that wasted precious road space in Metro Manila so cops wouldn’t have to work too hard, as they did during Pope Francis’ visit, to keep troublemakers away. I used the APEC roads at different hours during APEC week and there were too many long periods when they were not in use. The roads were simply empty as far as the eye could see, except for an occasional motorcycle cop.

When Pope Francis visited, the people were included in the celebration, from welcome to departure, despite raw intel that there was a threat to his life. This time, even without a specific threat, everyone except for the .001 percent was treated either as a potential threat or an eyesore.

A P10-billion budget was allocated for the entire year of hosting APEC meetings. Daang sarado has promised it can fully explain how the P10 billion was utilized.

What may be more complicated for P-Noy is to count the political cost of making his “bosses” (except for the .001 percent) feel like second-class citizens in their own land.