PH mounts biggest security operation for papal visit

A huge crowd of Filipino faithful gather in excitement along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, Philippines, as they welcome the motorcade of Pope Francis, who arrived on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 to begin his Apostolic visit. For the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, the Philippine government has activated the biggest intelligence operation of its security forces far more extensive than when US President Barack Obama visited the country last year, the Inquirer has learned. AP PHOTO/RON SOLIMAN

MANILA, Philippines–For Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, the government has activated the biggest intelligence operation of its security forces far more extensive than when US President Barack Obama visited the country last year, the Inquirer has learned.

“This is our largest intelligence security preparation in recent history,” a military source deep in the intelligence community told the Inquirer on condition of anonymity.

The source said Thursday that covert operations were taking place in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, not just where Pope Francis would be visiting and where large crowds were expected to converge to see the Pontiff in Manila and Tacloban City.

Spread everywhere

Without giving details, the source said intelligence agents were spread everywhere, keeping an eagle eye on anything that could raise suspicions and pose a threat to Francis and the public.

The military, police and other government intelligence agencies have constantly been coordinating with each other, sharing information, processing them, leaving no stone unturned even two months before the papal visit, the source added.

The covert operations were planned last November, and had begun by the first week of December. Those involved in the undercover task had to forgo the holiday season.

“With intelligence operations, you cannot plan overnight,” the source said.

Lessons from the past

Echoing what President Aquino said last week, the source said government security forces included in the security plan for Pope Francis the lessons they learned from the assassination attempt on Pope Paul VI in 1970 and the terrorist plot during the visit of Pope, now Saint, John Paul II in 1995.

The 1995 plot was called “Project Bojinka,” a wide-scale attack masterminded by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

When Islamic extremists went on a murderous rampage in Paris last week, Philippine security officials already had a security plan that had taken into consideration a similar attack, Emmanuel Bautista, the chief of security for the papal visit, told the Inquirer in an earlier interview.

President Aquino said at least 25,000 military and police personnel would be deployed to ensure the safety of the Pope and the public. The figure does not include the undercover agents. The Inquirer source declined to give even an estimate.

Aquino also said the security for Pope Francis would be double than what was given to him daily by the Presidential Security Group (PSG).

Obsessed with details

He also said he had always been “obsessed” with details.

When he went on a surprise inspection of the motorcade route of Pope Francis from Villamor Air Base to the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila, where the Pontiff would stay, the President noticed a building across the nunciature that might have been overlooked in the security preparations.

Even a boom crane did not escape the President’s eye, and he suggested that it might be better to have it face “elsewhere” and not toward the nunciature.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said on Wednesday that “those minute observations” showed how the President was “very mindful of the surroundings.”

“All these inputs that the President has made and continues to make are all made part of the security preparations,” Lacierda said.

The security preparations for the Pope are “always a constant improving of the security situation and the security preparations,” he added.

‘One can never be sure’

The Inquirer source said that even with the detailed planning that went into both the overt and the covert security preparations for Pope Francis, not one of those tasked to secure the Pontiff and the public could let their guard down.

“Honestly, one can never be sure,” the source said.

And with uncertainties hovering throughout the papal visit, “we still ask for more prayers,” the source said.

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