“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” –Henry Ford

The decision to hold the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Iloilo City, from March 6 to 16, is laudable. Delegates and other visitors will surely enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Ilonggos.
Force and resources for ASEAN 2017 in Iloilo City, composed of the highly competent men and women of the 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 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 one of the most progressive cities in the country.
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.

World Class
Infrastructure, from the Iloilo International Airport to government edifices to hotels and convention centers are hi-tech and world-class.
When it comes to economic, political, and social progress and development, Iloilo City competes with other modern cities in Asia.
The city’s economic climate has also been the subject of positive remarks from industrialists and investors planning to put up additional businesses.
Delegates and guests are privileged to set foot in the city considered the “Athens of the Philippines,” due to the presence of highly-regarded 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
Crew from the Royal London Circus (RLC) visited Iloilo City in June 1993 and said, in a press conference at the Sarabia Manor Convention Center, “If you visited the Philippines and you didn’t visit Iloilo City, you did not visit the Philippines.”
He was so impressed with Iloilo City, he married a local woman.
Iloilo City has, since, developed by leaps and bounds since 1993.
Traffic equipment and facilities, widened roads, lighted avenues, decorated mini-parks, expanded sidewalks, improved lampposts, and extended highways and overpasses have spruced up and helped ease the movement of the local economy and increase productivity of human resources.
The grassy area where RLC stunt men and women, mostly from Europe and America, held their shows for two weeks, along the former Iloilo Diversion Road (now, Benigno Aquino Avenue), is now a sprawling commercial fulcrum.
Amazing Iloilo City is now truly a big thing./WDJ