Lahat APEC-tado by summit that could be Aquino’s grossest failure

LET’S make one thing perfectly clear: Our criticism of the APEC summit – the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, to use its proper name – is in no way directed at the organization or the concept of APEC itself. The 21-nation collective linking both sides of the Pacific Ocean is a valuable forum for sharing ideas and advancing regional and global initiatives that benefit some citizens in the member countries, which are nearly half the world’s population. In a world too often filled with conflict and tension, frameworks for cooperation like APEC are worthy endeavors that deserve our support, and we in The Times give it unreservedly.

Our appreciation for the APEC, however, in no way whatsoever is extended to the manner President BS Aquino 3rd and his Administration have managed the hosting of the main summit this week in Metro Manila. One can choose any disruptive event in memory – the EDSA revolutions, any of the handful of terrorist attacks that have occurred throughout the years, other large-scale visits by world leaders such as Pope Francis earlier this year or Pope John Paul II years earlier, or any one of dozens of typhoons or other natural disasters that have affected the metropolis – and one would be very hard put indeed to recall any that have caused such catastrophic upheaval as the one we are suffering through now.