AFP-PNP task force to guard embassies

A 300-member police-military task force has been set up to guard foreign embassies in the country against any terrorist attack.

"Special Task Force Diplomatic Security" will be headed by Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Jose Gutierrez, who has jurisdiction over Makati City where most embassies and diplomatic residences are located.

Metro Manila police commander Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco said the task force will deploy specially trained policemen as close-in security to ambassadors and other diplomats, while Marines and police Special Action Forces will guard embassies and residences of diplomats.

"The security of foreign missions and diplomatic residences is the obligation of the host country," he said.

All police district directors in Metro Manila are under orders to secure all foreign diplomatic missions and residences, Velasco added.

Senior Superintendent Paul Bataoil, Philippine National Police spokesman, said Task Force Diplomatic Security will have to pool its resources with the PNP-Police Security Protection Office, which is in charge of protecting diplomats.

"We will integrate other units into this task force to assure the protection (of diplomats) on a 24-hour basis," he said. "If there is a need to add forces, an augmentation team is on standby."

The task force was created last week after the Australian and Canadian embassies closed down because of threats from terrorists, he added.

In Cagayan de Oro City, PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said he has ordered police to tighten security in all Australian and Canadian development projects and to guard their consultants in Mindanao.

"We assure these two countries that their projects and consultants here are safe," he said.

Security measures are in place in vital facilities in Mindanao and that these are sufficient to thwart any terrorist attack, he added.

Reports said the Canadian government has poured some $500 million in various development projects in Mindanao since 1997.

Ebdane, along with Armed Forces chief Gen. Dionisio Santiago, was in Marawi City last Friday to accept the formal surrender of 102 Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, which included 18 women.

Meanwhile, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Rep. Constantino Jaraula urged the Arroyo administration yesterday to deal "forcefully" with terrorists.

"Our government should make the foreign embassies here feel assured that we are capable of protecting them," Pimentel said.

"It is imperative that functionaries of government do their job honestly and well instead of blaming or faulting (other governments’) perception and contribute courageously towards the President’s call for a strong republic," Jaraula said.

In Tokyo, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said it was "hasty, exuberant and almost bizarre" for Australian Prime Minister John Howard to propose a change in the United Nations Charter to allow Australian troops to strike at terrorists in any Southeast Asian country.

"This is not helpful in terms of promoting understanding and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

Howard’s proposal would overturn the UN’s founding principles, he added.

However, Ople said the Philippines is "open" to a bilateral agreement with Australia on cooperation in the fight against international terrorists.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had assured him that the Australian Embassy in Makati would continue to render essential services from the ambassador’s residence and a hotel room in Makati, he added. — With Bong Fabe