PH's new rapid deployment unit vs terrorist attacks

From Rappler (Mar 6): PH's new rapid deployment unit vs terrorist attacks



NEW UNIT FOR NEW THREATS: Members of the military's CBRNE unit. Photo by Carmela Fonbuena/Rappler.com

The Armed Forces of the Philippines displayed on Thursday, March 6, its new elite unit capable of responding to new threats of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRNE) explosives. It's a unit that the military hopes it will not need to deploy although incidents worldwide show the threat is real.

The 4-month old CBRNE unit is initally composed of a 30-man platoon pulled out of the Army's Explosive Ordnance And Disposal (EOD) battalion. They were trained to respond to the most demanding emergies of all – terrorist attacks.

A scenario of a chemical attack was enacted inside the military headquarters in Quezon City. The platoon displayed how to conduct outdoor dispersion of an industrial chemical chlorine, illustrating emergency preparedness and response.

The plan is to grow the CBRNE unit and deploy them nationwide. The training and equipment are expensive, however.

"This is just the start of building up our own capability. We have started it and we will improve on it. We will come up with a bigger unit. We will acquire more equipment to improve the capability of this unit," said Major General Danilo Servando, chief of the Army Support Command.

Various attacks

Terrorist networks are present in the Philippines. It was in the country that top terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed hatched the Bojinka plot which served as the blueprint for the 9/11 attack in 2001. In the same year, lethal chemical anthrax was used to lace letters sent to US agencies.

In 2004, local terrorists bombed a Philippine superferry. It is the biggest maritime terrorist attack in Philippine history. The following year, in 2005, a bus exploded on Valentines Day in Makati City.

There was also the Tokyo sarin gas attack in the same year. In Syria, thousand of civilians were killed by chemical attacks.

Terrorist threats nowadays include human bombs, liquid bombs, printer bombs, underwear bombs, and bombs surgically implanted in the bodies of terrorists.

In 2013, there was the Boston Marathon attack that used pressure cooker bombs.

"In our case, where we actively used this as a means of containment is our deployment in the United Nations. If you remember we had a threat of a chemical attack in our deployment in Golan Heights that prompted us to have more protection equipment because the threat is real," said Armed Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala.

The Philippines tapped Smart Technology, a security company, to train the Filipino troops. Its managing director, Kevin Salim, said armed forces worldwide should continue to upgrade as terrorist groups innovate.

"From the deterrence point of view, they are looking for new methods to attack us. When we become more aware on explosive sectors, they start looking for other markets, for example anthrax and other biological and chemical substances as well," Salim said.

http://www.rappler.com/nation/52340-cbrne-terrorist-attacks-response