A glimpse of the APEC Summit

The two-day APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting that capped a year's worth of ministerial meetings and symposiums, workshops and seminars is finally over.

Around 3,000 journalists and media workers were registered to cover the two-day summit and the bilateral meetings happening on the sidelines.

According to officials around 10,000 delegates, including heads of state and their respective entourage, converge in Manila for the annual summit of APEC's 21 member economies.

Despite the business as usual in terms of the daily grind of journalists – attending conferences, poring through documents, interviewing sources, and writing the stories – covering the summit that was dubbed by police authorities as 10 times the scale of the papal state and apostolic visit last January requires the cunning, resourcefulness and zeal of a dedicated journalist.

Ensconced at IMC

On day-one of the summit proper alone on Wednesday, November 18, at least 16 events unfolded throughout the day – and that was only the official schedule. At its command center, the Philippine National Police held a separate briefing on the security measures to keep the heads of state and other delegates safe.

While some heads of state brought their own press corps, like Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Malcolm Turnbull, most of the journalists were ensconced at the International Media Center (IMC) within the vicinity of the Philippine International Convention Center where the leaders' meeting was happening.

Journalists were mostly barred from the meetings and dialogs that were unfolding, except a handful whose names were picked in a raffle to make up the pool of reporters for specific event coverage. From a giant TV monitor, the journalists who were not included in the pool monitor the events – the arrival and departure of economic leaders, the summit dialogs, and the welcome dinner.

At the IMC, the organizers made sure that apart from being able to do the remote coverage of the meetings the journalists would have ready access to computers, food and beverage, and even a massage center to soothe their nerves and muscles.

Gets the job done

With the VIPs of business and government of the member economies present, security protocols were understandably imposed on all – including reporters.

Bags and equipments went through an X-ray machine and sniffed by police dogs.

Security personnel would sweep the briefing room for an hour at the IMC whenever a head of state is scheduled to hold a press conference.

All the members of the media and the organizing council were asked to leave the main briefing room before President Benigno Aquino III arrived for a press conference that capped the two-day summit on Thursday.

Abiding by security protocols was negligible compared to the efforts of true and dedicated journalists to get the story out and as fast as possible to their respective desks for editing before getting published.

But covering the 2015 APEC Summit, there's no time for groping in the dark. At the end of the day, a good reporter always gets the job done. – with Keith Richard Mariano/VS, GMA News