Aquino’s big boo-boo at APEC: Snubbing our biggest trading partner

President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s bungling in having the APEC event in Manila cost Filipinos horrendous traffic, P10 billion in taxpayers’ money, and tens of billions of pesos in foregone contract workers’ wages and business income.

That is just the short-term cost. The worse, longer-term damage could yet be realized from the repercussions of Aquino’s cold-shoulder treatment of Chinese President Xi Jinping as though he was the head of some junior member economy of the Asia Pacific grouping.