‘Mr. Transformer’

Mactan, Cebu – It is my first time ever since the pandemic to set foot again in this one of major bustling cities in the Philippines. Dubbed then as “Ce-boom,” this is now a reality in Cebu, and more.

The “Ce-boom” battlecry was pursued by the late President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR), whose first death anniversary is being observed today at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The “Ce-boom” slogan actually was coined by FVR with his former vice presidential runningmate, the late son of Cebu, Governor Lito Osmeña.

The province is currently headed by Cebu’s “first woman Governor,” former Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia. As Governor, she is on her unprecedented fifth term in office after she won her re-election bid in last year’s local polls. She is the mother of Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Frasco. In the same May polls last year, Frasco won her re-election bid as Mayor of Liloan, one of Cebu’s progressive cities. Instead of resuming her job as Mayor, Frasco accepted the Cabinet post offered to her by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM).

When Frasco recently came under fire for the botched launch of DOT’s new country brand “Love, the Philippines,” 67-year old Gov. Garcia, along with other Cebu elected officials and leaders of the province, naturally squarely stood behind their embattled former Liloan City Mayor. The DOT took the brunt of attacks for their advertising agent’s using “stock video” footages in the latest country brand video promotions featuring tourism attractions of other countries.

The mother-and-daughter tandem is the proud hosts of this year’s third round of the meetings and conferences of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation-APEC Business Conference, or ABAC-3. As hosts, they gave out bags of native stuffs emblazoned with “Love Cebu” in one side, and the DOT’s “Love, the Philippines” brand logo to their visitors.

PBBM keynoted the ABAC-3 barely a few hours after his arrival Thursday night from a three-day state visit to Malaysia. PBBM flew here last Friday morning and had closed-door meetings with the key leaders and delegates attending the ABAC-3. “Today’s global challenges such as climate change, ocean waste and pollution, shift to clean energy, smart city agglomeration, they all require the economies the transformation of economic and business activities to ensure that these critical issues are effectively addressed, but in a sustainable and resilient manner,” PBBM told his ABAC-3 audience.

“Establishing a dynamic and innovative ecosystem is one of the cross-cutting strategies in our transformation agenda,” PBBM cited.

From the ABAC-3 gathering, PBBM inaugurated the latest branch of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) for Visayas. Situated at the heart of Cebu City’s shipping capital, the newly opened NMP is housed at the former Bureau of Customs (BOC) building in Mactan. The more than century-old BOC building was at one time transformed into “Malacañang of the Visayas” during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whenever she visited Cebu. Later, First Lady Lisa Araneta-Marcos flew in here and led the gala welcome reception for the more than 200 ABAC-3 delegates.

The ABAC-3 is the run-up to the upcoming APEC Leaders’ Summit set this November in San Francisco, California and hosted this year by the United States (US). PBBM is attending this annual meeting hosted inter-changeably in the Asian and Pacific 21-member economies. In fact, the Philippines already twice hosted the APEC Leaders’ Summit, first in 1996 during FVR’s presidency and in 2015 during the term of the late President Noynoy “PNoy” Aquino III.

Incidentally, the family of the late President Corazon Aquino is observing tomorrow her 14th death anniversary at the family mausoleum at the Manila Memorial Park in Sucat, Paranaque City.

The province of Cebu has played major role in many of these APEC events that were hosted in the Philippines. The ABAC-APEC is one of these events held annually with this year’s theme “Equity, Sustainability, and Opportunity.” It was held here from July 27 to 30 at the NUStar Convention Center located in the reclamation area of Mactan island.

Another “great son of Cebu,” businessman-industrialist Sabin Aboitiz was the chief organizer of the ABAC-3 as head of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC). Created “to speed up the economic development and transformation” in the Philippines during his watch, PBBM regularly convenes the PSAC at Malacañang at least twice a month. “The close partnership between the public and private sectors will continue to deepen with the establishment of PSAC under President Marcos,” Aboitiz cited.

Beside being the PSAC convenor, Sabin Aboitiz heads the 13 different family-owned companies and currently is the president, chief executive officer (CEO) and Director at Aboitiz Equity Ventures. The family-owned Aboitiz Group conglomerates are publicly listed under the holding company Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

Aboitiz is this year’s vice chairman of the ABAC-3 Sustainable Growth Working Group that presented the progress report on the Climate Risk Scenarios Project. At the end of the ABAC-3 conference here yesterday, Aboitiz announced that this project and other policy recommendations would be formally shared with the APEC Leaders during the Summit later this year.

“As we gather here in Cebu, the home province of my family, I cannot help but feel a sense of pride…it’s not just a familial heritage site but also a bustling gateway in the Visayas to the rest of our beautiful country,” Aboitiz enthused.

According to its website, the Aboitiz Group launched last year its own “Great Transformation2025” journey from a legacy conglomerate into a “techglomerate” of the future.

Now we know where PBBM drew the inspiration of “transformative” mantra during his state of the nation address (SONA) last July 24.

In a very brief chance encounter with PBBM on his way to other engagements here, I teased him “Mr. Transformer.” To which he chuckled and riposted with hand gesture to show he has been doing little progress so far.