Military sees peaceful APEC amid Paris attacks

MANILA, Philippines —  The military expects this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meet to be peaceful amid fears that armed groups might disrupt the event by staging deadly attacks similar to those in Paris last Friday.

Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla said government forces are prepared for any scenario but are nevertheless making themselves more visible to prevent untoward incidents.

“We are carefully analyzing what happened to Paris to see if we have to adjust for things like that. But it seems that we have covered such scenarios so we will just increase our visibility in all areas,” Padilla said in an interview Sunday.

“We're looking forward to a safe, secured peaceful and successful conduct of the summit,” he added.

Padilla clarified that the plan to increase the visibility of government troops is part of the security preparations for the APEC.

“We are giving assurance to the people. The more security forces you see, the safer you will feel,” the military spokesman said.

Padilla said security forces have not monitored any serious threat to delegates of the summit, which will be attended by representatives from more than 20 countries. He said there is no need to change existing security protocols because of the Paris attacks. 

When asked about fears that sympathizers of the terrorist group Islamic State might commit atrocities during the APEC summit, Padilla said: “No, the ISIS presence here is very small and very remote.”

The Philippine military has been on red alert since Saturday morning, a few hours after Islamic extremists launched simultaneous attacks in Paris and killed more than 120 people.

Padilla said the raising of the alert status was held a day earlier than scheduled as part of the preparations for the Philippines’ hosting of the APEC meet.