The Philippine National Police on Monday assured it is in
the thick of preparations to ensure safety of the delegates of the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in November.
”The final preparation for security and peace and order is
underway. This week, there will be a series of activities once more making sure
all areas -- maritime, air, and road security, billet, venues are properly
secured,” PNP Chief Director General Ricardo Marquez Marquez told reporters.
He noted that APEC security preparations are similar to
those laid out during the visit of Pope Francis in the country early this year.
”May mga similarities ang gagawin natin. When we move heads
of state, normally we close the road that we will use, unlike the Pope when he
was the only VIP,” he said.
He added that security preparations, which started late last
year, is now in full swing as the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, set on
November 17-20, 2015, is fast approaching.
Marquez said there is no plan to cut off the cellphone signals
but the PNP has increased their target hardening measures in places frequented
by foreign tourists to secure and protect everyone during their stay.
”No plan yet… So the restrictions on the road, restrictions
on road travel, restriction on communication are still being studied. We'd like
to make sure that it costs least convenience to our citizens at the same time
making sure our visitors, our VVIPs, seven thousand of them are also well
secured,” he said.
Marquez said they also coordinate with their foreign
counterparts for the security preparations.
”Since three months ago, coordination with our foreign
counterparts are ongoing to make sure that they know what to do when they are
here. To make them feel that their principals are secured when they visit our
country come November week,” said Marquez.
Asked if there are special concerns aired by foreign
counterparts, Marquez said that there is none so far.
"When we do security operations for APEC, there are
standards implemented in other countries hosted. APEC would be the same
standards that we are going to do here (and) there is a special group, the
diplomatic security group that attends to special concerns,” he said.
”Those APEC leaders are our visitors. I would like to appeal
once again, just like what we did during the arrival of the Pope last January,
that we are all supposed to be hosts here and make sure we show our best side
when the 21 heads of economies come,” he added.
The APEC Summit, to be attended by world leaders, is an
important platform to showcase Manila and the Philippines
APEC consists of 21 member-economies including developed and
developing countries namely: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan,
South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Canada, United States, Chinese Taipei, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong,
Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia, and Vietnam.
Member economies aim to provide an avenue in creating and
maintaining sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the region by
providing the stakeholders an arena to exchange ideas, opinions, concerns, and
plans.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=819514
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