A massive security blanket is being put in place to protect leaders who are to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, the East Asia summit and related meetings in the Philippines this month, Philippine authorities said Friday.
Nearly 60,000 soldiers and policemen will be deployed around Manila and Clark in Pampanga to ensure the safety and security of the leaders and senior officials, according to Catalino Cuy, Officer-in-Charge of the Philippine Department of the Interior and Local Government.
These forces will be assigned to secure the airports, routes, venues, and tours of the participants.
“We are mobilizing thousands of troops and resources and even get augmentations from the nearby regions just to make sure that there will be no untoward incident during the summit,” Cuy said in a statement.
The government has issued an advisory to people that the roads around the meeting venues will be placed under partial or full lockdowns from Nov. 8 to 15.
All foreign leaders will arrive and leave through Clark International Airport in Pampanga, 80 kilometers north of Manila. They will then be helicoptered to Manila where the high-level meetings will be held.
The ministerial meetings and the leaders’ summit will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) by the Manila Bay, prompting authorities to impose a “no sail zone” in the Bay from Nov. 5 to 16.
“We are covering all fronts because the safety and security of our delegates is our primordial concern,” Cuy said.
The government has also implemented a 15-day gun ban in Metro Manila and 12 nearby provinces, beginning Nov. 1.
The leaders’ meeting is to take place barely three weeks after the Philippine security liberated Marawi from pro-Islamic State (IS) militants who took over the southern city for five months. The conflict, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people and displaced thousands, reduced the city to rubble.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the country is safe and is now ready to host the leaders, the foreign ministers and the international media.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who will play host and chair all the leaders’ meetings, will call on greater cooperation to crush terrorism and violent extremism in the region, according to Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano.
The ASEAN summit will take place on Nov. 13 while the East Asia Summit (EAS) will take place on Nov. 14, both in Manila.
EAS, which includes ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States, is the region’s premier leaders-led forum for addressing the Asia-Pacific’s most pressing political and security issues.
The leaders will also attend the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of ASEAN on Nov. 12. The Philippines is the chair of ASEAN this year.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
