--Henry Ford
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The decision to hold the ASEAN Summit in Iloilo City, Philippines from March 6-16, 2017, aside from Boracay Island and Bacolod City, is laudable.
Summit delegates and other visitors attending the conclave will surely enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Ilonggos.
Force and Resources for ASEAN 2017 in Visayas Region in Iloilo City composed of highly competent men and women of Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Army (PA), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and Philippine Navy (PN) has been on top of the situation and doing a yeoman's task to ensure the success of the event.
Unknown to some people outside the country, Iloilo City, otherwise known as the "City of Love", is one of the most modern and safest cities in the Philippines.
It is blessed with a high literacy rate and among the progressive cities in the country with lowest rate in peace and order, according to the PNP. The Department of Tourism (DOT) rates Iloilo City as one of the top tourist destinations.
Rich culturally and religiously, Iloilo City is an ideal venue for any international gathering that requires field trips and visits to tourist spots.
WORLD-CLASS
Infrastructures from the Iloilo International Airport to government edifices, hotels and convention centers are hi-tech and world-class.
When it comes to economic, political, and social progress and development, Iloilo City can definitely compete with other modern cities in Asia.
The city's economic climate has been the subject of positive remarks from industrialists and investors planning to put up additional businesses.
Delegates and guests would also be privileged to set foot in the city considered as the "Athens of the Philippines" owing to the presence of highly-established state and private universities and colleges that have attracted foreign enrollees from different continents.
Iloilo City is the only metropolis in the country surrounded by an octagon-shaped river, a state-of-the-art international pier, and a sea accessible to nearby island-provinces and regions.
VISIT
A crew of the Royal London Circus (RLC) that visited Iloilo City in June 1993 once told us in a press conference at the Sarabia Manor Convention Center that "if you visited the Philippines and you didn't visit Iloilo City, you did not visit the Philippines."
He was impressed with Iloilo City that he decided to marry a local woman who resided near the circus venue and brought her to Europe.
Iloilo City has developed by leaps and bounds since 1993.
Traffic equipment and facilities, widened roads, lighted avenues, decorated mini-parks, expanded sidewalks, improved lampposts, extended highways and overpasses have spruced up and helped ease movement of local economy and increase the productivity of human resources.
The grassy area where RLC stunt men and women, mostly coming from Europe and America, held their shows for two weeks in the former Iloilo Diversion Road (now Benigno Aquino Avenue), is now a sprawling commercial fulcrum.
Amazing Iloilo City is indeed now truly a big thing.
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