Philippines expects 10,000 participants in upcoming APEC meetings

The Philippines is expecting some 10, 000 delegates to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, including the leaders' summit later this month, a senior government official said Sunday.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario said the huge number of participants prompted the government to hold the event in Metro Manila.

She said Metro Manila is the only place in the country that can accommodate 10,000 people.

"APEC is the Wedding of the Century" and everybody wants to attend, said Del Rosario, who also chairs the Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) this year.

Classes and work in most government offices, as well as most commercial flights to and from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), have been suspended from Nov. 17 to 20 for top-level APEC meetings.

Prior to the November meetings, other APEC-related meetings, such as on health, disaster risk reduction, finance, micro/small/medium enterprises, and energy, among others, were held in other places in the country, including Cebu, Boracay, Bohol, and Iloilo.

The APEC meetings include the SOM on Nov. 13-14, the ministers' meetings on Nov. 16-17, and the leaders' summit on Nov. 18-19. Enditem