First line of defense

From Nov. 16 to 20, Metro Manila served as the venue for the last of the 44 rounds of meetings for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)  held in various parts of the country as the host of this year’s summit. It culminated in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting (AELM) that gave the honor to President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III to chair the summit meetings of the 21-APEC member economies.

The respective leaders of the world’s biggest and most powerful countries flew here for the APEC led by US President Barack Obama, President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia, among some of them.

Still smarting from the terrorist bombing by suspected Islamic State (IS) jihadists that killed more than 200 of his countrymen on board a Russian commercial jetliner, President Vladimir Putin begged off from attending this year’s summit. He designated Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to represent him at the AELM.

Despite the non-attendance by Putin and two other leaders in this year’s AELM, there were still 21 very important people (VIP) and their respective delegations who all came for the APEC summit. Thus, we saw and experienced the extra tight security cordons, lockdowns of all APEC areas where the international gatherings were held in various places in Metro Manila, including long convoys of police escorts of any VIP movement.

Rightly so, loud howls of protests against these “overkill” of security lockdowns during APEC were valid.

But on hindsight though, we can all heave a collective sigh of relief that none of the worst fears nor imagined terrorist threats came to pass.

Except for the rowdy anti-APEC protest rallies, the accolades of zero-incident were credited to Joint Security Task Groups headed by Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Ricardo Marquez. But it was the efforts of all government agencies mobilized to ensure no one would spoil “More Fun in the Philippines” while the summit was taking place.

This we learned from the post-APEC discussions we had in our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Luneta Hotel last Wednesday when we had as guests Bureau of Immigration (BI) commissioner Siegfred Mison and one of his deputies, Gilbert Repizo, along with Director Manny Gaerlan, head of the peace and order task group under the APEC Joint Security Task Groups.

Notwithstanding these tight-clad security cordons and lockdowns, anti-APEC groups tried but failed to get anywhere near the venues of the AELM. Gaerlan, however, clarified the rallyists were allowed to hold their protest actions but were all pushed to areas far from venues to prevent disruption of the events. To the surprise of the PNP chief, he said, he deployed female cops as front-liners in the police barricades so that the rallyists would look at less fierce faces in the police line.

While there was some minor injuries for some rallyists and policemen as well, Gaerlan cited authorities observed “maximum tolerance.” He said the water cannon was used not to disperse the rallyists but to prevent dehydration of everyone, including the policemen who wore heavy protective vests under the sun.

Incidentally, the playing of the Katy Perry hit song “Roar” and other pop songs that reportedly helped ease tension during the anti-APEC protest at Buendia last week was the bright idea of Gaerlan. At his command post in Buendia, Gaerlan disclosed, they mounted the sound system on board a police truck and played the pop tunes at full volume.

The blast of the pop music drowned the loud noise and shouting at the rally. The shoving and pushing gradually turned festive and effectively calmed both rallyists and anti-riot policemen, Gaerlan noted. Eventually, Gaerlan added, the rallyists dispersed peacefully.

Gaerlan is not new to securing the APEC. He was a young senior inspector in 1996 when the Philippines hosted the first ever AELM. He was one of the members of the elite Presidential Security Group (PSG) during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos. Gaerlan, the top graduate of Philippine Military Academy Class 1985, was then a junior military aide-de-camp of Ramos.

As it turned out, there were some foreign nationals who joined the anti-APEC rally. But many of them were barred from entering our country before and during the APEC because they were classified as “undesirable” aliens. One of them was Hong Kong journalist Lui Tsz Kin who got blacklisted after he heckled President Aquino during the APEC summit in Indonesia in 2013. While working as HK media, Lui shouted at P-Noy about the Luneta bus hostage crisis where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed in 2010 due to botched police rescue.

Repizo said Lui was refused entry by Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on the grounds that he might disrupt anew the APEC meeting using his media access cards. Repizo admitted there was some attempt by Hong Kong officials to intercede on Lui’s behalf but the BI invoked its sovereign right to protect national interest against potential troublemakers.

Two other foreigners, one Chinese and an Afghan national were also deported on APEC-related threats. Mison disclosed an Interpol Team came to Manila to help the BI in its screening of potential terrorists who might sneak into the country and stir up trouble. The BI got an Interpol update listing at least 1,400 individuals in the watch list of “terrorists” around the world.

Mison revealed the Interpol also updated the BI with nine million names of various nationals who may not be classified as “terrorist” but who may be fugitives or missing persons wanted in other countries. With the help of three portable laptops brought by Interpol experts, Mison said the BI was hooked up and given access to background checks on foreigners entering the country.

With the BI’s acquisition of additional passport readers deployed in all ports of entry in our country, Mison said, the window of opportunity of foreign terrorists to sneak in would be lessened further.

Of course, Mison pointed out, these terrorists would normally use valid passports and other travel documents. But the access of the Philippines to the main frame of the Interpol information, he pointed out, would make the movement of terrorists easily detectable if they come here in the Philippines under assumed names or false identities.

As border control officers, Mison agrees the holding here of the latest AELM has underscored the vital role of the BI as the country’s first line of defense against global terrorism which, however, knows no boundaries.