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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, March 23, 2017
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“Information aids in integration,” Interior secretary Ismael Sueno says during the opening of the 15th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials Responsible for Information at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City on Wednesday, March 22. ARCHIE REY ALIPALO/PN
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BACOLOD City – Information is important to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary Ismael Sueno.
“Knowledge is power,” Sueno said at the opening of the ASEAN meeting in this city on Wednesday. “This means that knowledge is a tool that unlocks infinite possibilities, and I think the same way about ‘information’ and ‘integration.’”
Bacolod City is hosting the two-day 15th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials Responsible for Information at the SMX Convention Center.
“Let us put those two words together: information aids in integration,” said Sueno. “If information is crucial to ASEAN’s regional strategy of promoting the ASEAN Community and the unique benefits and opportunities that we have in the region, we see the same key relationship in Philippine society.”
SOMRI leaders and the ASEAN Secretariat aim to reach a consensus on policy guidelines and priority areas in the fields of information and media.
Chairpersons of the SOMRI Working Groups shall give updates on the outcomes of the Working Group meetings on digital broadcasting, content and production, and information, media and training.
“It is here that we may talk in close quarters about economic, political, social, and cultural development through the eyes of our respective nations … through the eyes of the region as a whole,” said Sueno.
The Philippines is hosting the ASEAN Summit this year in line with the 10-state organization’s 50th founding anniversary.
Puyat, on the other hand, marveled at how people in the Philippines — with their more than 100 dialects spoken across 18 regions — are able to find ways to understand each other as Filipinos.
“In the same way, what is unique about the ASEAN as a regional bloc is that we are composed of 10 nations, all of which have diverse languages, traditions and cultures, yet we endeavor to understand and support each other,” he said.
While these differences “enrich” the ASEAN Community, “there is still a lot to do as we aspire to be a more cohesive region,” said Puyat.
Meanwhile Mayor Evelio Leonardia welcomed the delegates and other guests to “Southeast Asia’s City of Smiles.”
Bacolod has plenty to share — from old churches and ancestral houses to resorts and beaches, from farms and factories to warm and smiling people who are always ready to welcome visitors — Leonardia said.
Hosting the ASEAN meeting is “a step in the right direction,” said the mayor.
“We realize that the way to the future is [through] partnerships with other nations, to meld our uniqueness with theirs, and share with the rest of the world what each of us has been blessed with,” he said.
No untoward event related to the international gathering has happened as of this writing, said Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, city police chief.
A few meters from SM City Bacolod, where SMX Convention Center is located, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Negros members staged a protest against imperialism on Rizal Street next to the public plaza.
The protesters did not have a permit but were allowed to continue as long as they kept their activity peaceful and orderly, Wanky said. Police officers were deployed to the area. The protesters left after an hour./PN
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