A laidback Filipino resort is caught up in summit fever : World

Cebu (Philippines), Jan 14 ASEAN summit fever has swept this otherwise laidback resort island in the central Philippines. As you enter the city from the Mactan International airport, bright yellow banners proclaiming the 12th ASEAN Summit stare back at you from just about every corner.

The whole city, known for its vibrant nightlife and touristy pleasures, is bedecked like a bride awaiting her big moment.

But in this hullabaloo and clamour surrounding the ASEAN summit that began Sunday and East Asia summit scheduled for Monday, in both of which India is participating as summit partner, residents of this island city, used to more languid rhythms of existence, are not quite having the time of their life.

Intermittent traffic snarls and security checks (more than 6,000 security personnel and policemen have been deployed to ensure that the summit goes without any hitch) are driving them to the edge.

The usual summit anxieties notwithstanding, there is also a genuine sense of pride in the flowering of the city where the Spaniards brought Christianity a few centuries ago to its present moment of glory as the venue of an international summit.

The brand new Cebu International Convention Centre, with state-of-the-art facilities, has created quite a buzz here with even ordinary Filipinos waxing lyrical about it.

It's also Arroyo's moment of glory as Cebu is the bastion of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from where she won huge popular support in elections last year.

But it's not Bollywood, but call centres and the fabled Indian mysticism that appears to be the predominant image of India among average Filipinos here.

'Bollywood, what's that?' asked a pretty young Filipino guide when asked what she thinks of India. 'Call centres and reincarnation are how we remember India,' she said, straddling technology and spirituality in the same breath.

Marco, a student of information technology, also waxed about eloquent Indian call centres and the prospects of job and better life it offered to the country's youth. This interest is not surprising as Philippines is trying to emulate India's example and emerge as the hub of Business Process Outsourcing and Knowledge Process Outsourcing in the region.