APEC more challenging than papal visit – security force

MANILA, Philippines – Securing the delegates of the 21 member-economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) was more challenging than the security for Pope Francis during his visit last January.

Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, spokesman of the APEC-Security Task Force, said the atmosphere of the two huge events was also different, saying the police had to contain more than a million faithful eager to see the pope.

He said the papal visit was more of controlling the crowd.

Authorities said a total of 8,756 participants both from here and abroad, including 21 economic leaders, attended the weeklong APEC Summit in Manila.

During the papal visit from Jan 15 to 19, Filipinos from the provinces trooped to Manila to see Pope Francis. Authorities had to jam cellphone signals as part of security measures and the roads that were locked down was very minimal.

With the APEC, some parts of the stretch of EDSA was locked down, affecting thousands of motorists and commuters. Some had to walk several kilometers to get to their destinations.

PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez led the APEC post scenario assessment Friday and tasked the APEC-STF to identify the best practices and security aspects that could be improved for the next big events in the country.

Marquez declared the APEC summit was successful and orderly with the cooperation of 20 member-economies getting involved in the security preparations that started as early as December last year.

“We put our best foot forward in that historic event. We are happy with the result,” he said.

Marquez said he is proud of the policemen for maintaining peace and order during APEC and for observing maximum tolerance despite being attacked by rallyists.

Mayor said there was no untoward incident except for the clashes between anti-riot policemen and protesters, where some were taken to hospital.

Mayor added there was a significant decrease of reported crimes during the summit.  – With Eva Visperas