Baguio begs Palace: Let us host Apec meet

Baguio’s famous Burnham Park draws tourists year-round. Baguio hotel and restaurant owners have petitioned Malacañang to include the city as host to meetings during the 2015 Asia Pacific Economic Conference (Apec), which the Philippines hosts. RICK ALBERTO

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Hotel and restaurant owners here have petitioned Malacañang to include Baguio among the cities that would host meetings during the next Asia Pacific Economic Conference (Apec). But they attached a request: Please fix up the local airport.

Anthony de Leon, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB), said safety concerns over the idle Loakan Airport could automatically take the city out of the running as a host so the facility should be rehabilitated.

Since the 1990s, commercial airlines stopped servicing the Baguio route because of the difficulty pilots experienced navigating through the strong winds and fog that cover the runway at certain hours of the day.

The HRAB sent letters to the Office of the President and to Mayor Mauricio Domogan on May 30, urging them to consider adding Baguio to the list of cities and provinces that would serve as destinations of the Apec delegations in 2015.

Among these places are Metro Manila, Clark, Subic, Boracay, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, Bacolod and Tagaytay.

In its letter to President Aquino, the HRAB said that “to allow this important event to come and go without our city playing an active part in hosting [Apec] is unthinkable considering that we take great pride in our label as the summer capital of the Philippines.”

During the election campaign in May, President Aquino had used harsh words to describe Baguio’s diminishing luster as a travel destination.

But when asked at the Thursday news conference, De Leon said it was the state of Baguio’s airport and the access to the city, and not the President’s displeasure, that may have led the government to exclude the summer capital as a potential destination.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had proposed in 2007 to abandon Loakan airport and to fly tourists and businessmen to the Poro Point airport in San Fernando City in La Union, about 50 km away.

Arroyo had proposed using the Loakan runway to expand the Baguio City Economic Zone, but she withdrew the plan in 2008 when city officials and businessmen protested.

“There are well-meaning Baguio souls upstairs [ranking officials in the government] who want Baguio listed as an Apec destination,” said Purificacion Molintas, Cordillera director of the Department of Tourism.

She said the city could aim for the smaller Apec meetings. The Apec schedules a leaders’ summit, an economic ministers’ summit and a summit for economic directors, but the dignitaries also hold side meetings which could be convened in this city, she said.

The HRAB and local government officials agreed that a public-private initiative must be undertaken to improve Baguio’s infrastructure, transport and communication resources should the city be able to convince Malacañang that it could be an Apec host.—Vincent Cabreza