The military has sent its specialized land, air and sea forces to support the massive government contingent tasked to secure delegates to the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit 2017.
Five joint task groups have been deployed to perform security and emergency-response operations during the summit. The deployment is part of the Task Force’s Oplan Asean Leaders’ Summit (ALS).
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] is all set in securing Asean Summit 2017 by providing our best forces and conducting measures to support the lead government agencies. We have extended this to monitoring and addressing threats from the New People’s Army, as well as of petty criminals,” Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero said.
Under Oplan ALS, the Joint Task Force National Capital Region (JTF-NCR) provides augmentation forces to the National Capital Region Police Office and Presidential Security Group. It will also provide emergency- response units, such as search, rescue, and retrieval units and ambu-medic units to provide rescue and health support to delegates and all deployed forces.
“The AFP through the JTF-NCR has deployed the best among its forces to work with the Philippine National Police and other government agencies concerned in ensuring the safe and secured conduct of the Asean meetings in the Philippines,” military Public Affairs Office chief Col. Edgard A. Arevalo said.
The deployment of soldiers, part of the 60,000 assembled security personnel for the meetings, was the contribution of the Armed Forces in ensuring that no untoward incident would happen while leaders are meeting in the country.
“The AFP has long been planning and preparing for contingency measures to address any worse-case scenarios during the Asean Meetings. This is in line with our task of providing security coverage for the venues, as well as the safety of the people and all our visitors,” Arevalo added.
The JTF-NCR is currently led by Brig. Gen. Jesus Manangquil Jr.
Additional Internet capacity
THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Inc. has deployed additional Internet capacity to several locations in Clark and Metro Manila, particularly in areas where the Asean summit will take place.
Eric R. Alberto, the chief revenue officer of the telco provider, said his group has installed fiber-optic links and voice solutions to conference venues and key hotels to deliver speeds of up to 11 Gigabits per second to delegates and attendees of the Asean summit.
“Our facilities and our teams on-ground have been preparing the necessary equipment to ensure that our services run smoothly and help ensure the success of all events,” he added.
Aside from boosting fixed-line connectivity, PLDT, through subsidiary Smart Communications Inc., increased the capacity of its wireless network to handle huge amounts of mobile data during the said conference.
“We at PLDT and Smart are closely coordinating with our key partners in government and the Asean50 organizing committee to provide the telecommunications and ICT [information and communications technology] requirements that will help this Asean summit achieve its objectives,” Alberto said.
With Lorenz Marasigan