Asean Summit in PH a ‘success,’ says DILG

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The Philippines’ hosting of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit and Related Summits was a success, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge and Undersecretary Catalino Cuy said Wednesday.

“Our hosting of the 31st Asean Summit was successful,” Cuy, head of the Asean 2017 Committee on Security, said in a press briefing in Pasay City.

“It was not a walk in the park but we were able to deliver what was expected from us,” he added.

Cuy said the Asean Summit was generally peaceful and orderly, with zero incidents recorded all throughout the international convention.

There were, Cuy admitted, “inconveniences” that marred the conference, including the monster traffic last Saturday, the protest rallies in Manila that turned violent, and the canceled Asean Music Festival in Makati.

Cuy said the foreign delegations had given the government good feedback, especially the team’s American counterparts who said it was easier to coordinate this time with their security requests.

“’Yung US, ‘yung mga counterpart natin sa security (our counterpart in the security) are very thankful for the support and assistance na binigay natin (we have given) and commented that they found it easier this time to coordinate with us,” he said.

The undersecretary noted the committee’s “whole-of-nation” approach was the key to the event’s success.

“The key was everyone was doing his or her part with the local government units manifesting their cooperation and assistance in providing all the necessary logistical requirements and augmenting the resources of the national government during the preliminary Asean meetings and the actual summit,” he explained.

Police Director Napoleon Taas, commander of the Asean Security Task Force, said that the only weakness that they could share to the public was they got a “99.9 percent” rating from Philippine National Police chief Ronald Dela Rosa.

“I believe the only weakness was the one percent that we failed to get from the chief PNP’s rating. He gave us 99.9 percent or almost perfect. So that’s the only weakness that I would consider. Next time ‘yung .01 percent na ‘yon hindi dapat (should not be) present,” he said. /je