Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the regional summit, scheduled this week in Cebu, will firm up the commitment among the ASEAN leaders to make this year "a moment of glory" to obtain stability and security in the region.

"This year’s Summit will be a banner year towards a greater sense of community among nations, and a deeper commitment to expand and liberalize trade, tourism, and technical cooperation for the benefit of all our peoples, including all Filipinos wherever they live and work," Bunye said in his weekly column "View from the Palace."

"All the ASEAN member-countries as well as our dialogue partners are committed to making this year a moment of glory for regional stability and security," he said.

Leaders of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam will convene in Cebu for their annual summit which was postponed starting on Wednesday. The six dialogue partners of ASEAN — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea — are also expected to attend the event.

The summit was postponed last month when President Arroyo raised concerns over a looming typhoon, although that came just a day after western nations warned about a possible terrorist attack in the summit venue.

Bunye said the 10-member regional bloc is prepared to unite and to act as one in addressing imbalances in trade, poverty, environmental degradation, conflict and insecurity, terrorism, transnational crimes, and other issues that affect a region that spans half the world.

At the summit, the ASEAN leaders are expected to forge a deal that would accelerate the formation of a single regional market to fight off competition from China. ASEAN wants the target date advanced to 2015 from 2020, but analysts have noted that the region faces challenges in making a European-style single market work.

Recently, critics said the ASEAN summit has only made a lot of noise but has accomplished little.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday assured tight security measures to ensure the safety of at least 10 heads of state and other international leaders who will attend the 12th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from Friday, Jan. 12, to Monday, Jan. 15, in Cebu.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., AFP chief of staff, said that military intelligence information indicated a Threat Alert Level 2, which means that there are no concrete plans from any group to stage sabotage operations during the ASEAN Summit.

"We are confident that we can provide support for security requirements of our counterparts from the PNP in relation to the conduct of the ASEAN Summit," Esperon said.

The AFP chief of staff said that the military will also help the police in implementing the gun ban in areas in Cebu City, where the ASEAN Summit are scheduled to be held, particularly in the surrounding areas of the new Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

At least 3,000 soldiers from the AFP Central Command in Cebu City are now deployed in the area to help the PNP in case of any untoward incident.

Director Wilfredo Garcia, PNP directorate for operations, said that security preparations of the PNP "are now fully in place." Over 6,000 policemen will be deployed in strategic areas in Cebu City starting today to prepare for the international conference.

PNP personnel who will be deployed in Cebu City include those from the Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) units and Special Action Force (SAF) teams.

Garcia said the PNP will also double its security efforts in major airports and sea terminals in Cebu City and other places where the heads of state and other foreign leaders and delegates are expected to visit during the ASEAN summit conference.

Although Malacañang authorities insisted that the cancellation of the 12th ASEAN Summit last Dec. 12 was a result of approaching typhoon "Reming," others feared that security threats could have sparked the rescheduling of the international event after the governments of United Kingdom and Canada released negative travel advisories to their citizens in the Philippines, warning them of terrorist attacks.