Will we gain or lose in APEC?

Thousands of flights have been cancelled due to the no-fly-zone policy over Metro Manila during the hosting of the APEC Summit next week.

Billions have already been spent on infrastructure, not just in Imperial Manila but also in other host cities including Bacolod and Iloilo.

Tens of thousands of people have been mobilized, not just to secure visiting state leaders but also for the various programs that will happen and have happened during past gatherings of APEC representatives, and all at the expense of the state.

Hundreds of millions of government money have also been utilized to host advance parties, conduct security checks, augmenting security forces in Metro Manila, preventing protests, sprucing up of areas where state leaders and their representatives will pass through and more.

Plans to round-up the homeless and keep them away from major thoroughfares will also be additional expense not to mention the loss of income for businesses, including the airlines for the long holiday in Metro Manila.

While I am sure the APEC Summit will definitely bring in billions of investments as well, I hope it will be a worthwhile investment on our part. Just the fact that the whole world will be watching the proceedings here will introduce us to foreign investors but that is not exactly a guarantee that they will come in droves to pour money into our economy.

Of course we cannot discount the protestors and its effects on our image but I really hope nothing big will happen that will overshadow the merits of the summit and scare people away.

Yesterday, more than 1,300 flights have already been cancelled and more might be added to the list. That spells millions in revenues not to mention the nightmare that will ensue when flights resume and those cancelled will demand to be given priority. With the number of cancellation I think it will take them a week to normalize operations.

I just hope it is all worth it.

In other stories, I was watching the interview, well to put it bluntly – the grilling of OTS Chief, Undersecretary Roland Recomonoby, by the hosts of Bandila over ABS-CBN.

Recomono was asked to explain about the laglag-bala incidents in the airports and what have they done to resolve the matter since it first surfaced in 2012.

The official said they've dismissed about 65 personnel acting on individual capacity and while there is a possibility that these 65 belong to a bigger syndicate operating this laglag-bala scam, his agency could not say for certain since investigation on the matter is being handled by various agencies.

Three years since the first incident and up to now they cannot conclude if these personnel are doing it just on their own? Talk about the slow pace of justice. In fact, if it was not for the recent spate of cases and complaints, we will probably not know that this started in 2012.

I guess, because of greed, those involved in the scam became careless. They lost their profiling ability to select travelers who are willing to pay rather than be inconvenienced.

But going back to Recomono, he made a big blunder when he was asked why this much interest in bullets, since many of the more than a thousand apprehensions were actually just amulets and yet, his scanners allowed the passage of P2.5 million worth of cocaine hand carried by four Filipinas who were caught in Hong Kong a couple of months ago.

Tongue in cheek, the official answered, that the scanners were not from PDEA and as such did not know that the cocaine was a contraband. Besides, and this is where he got the flak, Recomono said, the cocaine was probably allowed since it's a substance or item that will not endanger the plane.

I guffawed at that. He further explained that his agency's mandate is simply to scan and confiscate items that will endanger passengers or the plane itself and since the cocaine is probably not an explosive and his scanners are not familiar with cocaine, the substance breezed through our airport.

While scanners are fast to confiscate lighters, perfumes or any liquids that are more than 100 ml, they did not confiscate the drugs because “it will not endanger the plane.”

I think Recomono should take a refresher course on what can and cannot be brought on a plane. It is universal that if we carry more than the allowable cash and we do not declare it, it will automatically be confiscated. Cash does not physically endanger the plane but it still can be confiscated yet cocaine was not.

I will not be surprised anymore if in the next few days Recomono will be on his way out of DOTC. With the flak they have been getting, they will make him a sacrificial lamb especially after putting the agency to shame with those pronouncements.

No wonder the OTS are under siege at the moment. Their stupidity stems from their own leader.*

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