Job well done

Now that the dust has settled and life is back to normal for many of us, it is time to give credit where credit is due and criticize those who need criticizing.

Was it worth the P10 billion reportedly spent by government for the country’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC) meetings here? As correctly pointed out, the Philippines did not volunteer to host this year’s meetings. Rather, it was our turn to host. But the cost to the economy may have been much more, considering the reduced productivity caused by the monstrous traffic jams, the non-working holidays, etc. And according to some observers, the actual cost to the Philippines to host the 2015 APEC meetings may have been much more, considering the private sector probably took care of part of the bill (the vehicles used to shuttle the APEC delegates, were these sold to government or did we just borrow these brand-new BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, and Toyota vehicles?)

Our airline companies had to absorb so much losses resulting from the cancelled flights which had to be rebooked. Not to mention the number of irate passengers, including those whose flights were not originally cancelled but had to be cancelled by the airline companies at the last minute.

A lot of these inconveniences could have been avoided had the flights of the APEC delegates been assigned to land at and leave from either Subic or Clark airports. Whoever insisted on NAIA deserves to be castigated.

Ten billion pesos is P10 billion. The amount could have been put to better use, say, by constructing new classrooms. Definitely, there is a need for those responsible for the APEC arrangements to account for the expenses.

But we have to admit our Philippine National Police (PNP) did a good job. Nothing untoward happened, except for the occasional encounters with the protesters and rallyists. But the APEC delegates were all safe during their stay here and left without incident. And that is definitely good news, especially in the aftermath of the Paris, France attacks that left 129 people dead.

The PNP served as the backbone of the Joint Task Force APEC Security which was responsible for all the APEC-related security measures and safeguards.

We were told that several days prior to the actual APEC meetings, PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez, commander of the joint task force, led an inspection team to check critical areas in and around APEC venues. The PNP chief also checked on the equipment and preparedness of the security forces deployed along the stretches of Roxas Boulevard, Buendia and Baclaran.

Marquez was there to make sure all deployed personnel had been given ample support, with logistics teams in place to ensure the personnel on the ground are properly fed and provisioned.

More than 30,000 police, soldiers and emergency personnel had been tasked with securing the just-concluded APEC summit, some of who had to be deployed from nearby provinces.

The PNP was successful in warding off attempts by militant groups to march towards the APEC venue at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), with the police using maximum tolerance even with many of these rallyists seemingly instigating an encounter. But instead of losing their cool, the police even resorted to playing music to drown the noise from the protesters.

There are those who say the heavy security and roadblocks were too much, but Marquez explained this was the protocol when guarding heads of states. He also apologized for the inconvenience caused by security measures.

For the men and women of the PNP who spent many hours away from their families to do a job none of us wants to do, and that is risk our lives to protect others, a job well done.

And for Director General Marquez, that simple gesture of treating our policemen to ice cream speaks a lot about his emotional quotient.

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