PH holds simulation exercises on Saturday for Apec security

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) security task force on Saturday held a series of simulations in preparation for the Apec Summit next week.

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Philippine National Police (PNP) Director of Operations Chief Supt. Jonathan Miano said the multi-agency task force will simulate the movements of their personnel during the Apec week from Nov. 16 to 19.

Miano said they will be holding a dry run of the convoy for Apec delegates, from the designated hotels to official venues such as the SM Mall of Asia Arena and the Philippine International Convention Center.

“We’re practicing so we can synchronize the movement of each convoy and to avoid being caught up in traffic,” he said at the multi-agency command center at the SM MOA Arena.

The convoy simulations were held from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

He said the roads will not be totally closed but will be open to traffic between the simulations.

“We’ll test if we can monitor the movement of the convoy. We have CCTV (closed-circuit television) monitoring,” Miano added, explaining that they want to know how fast they can respond to problems they may encounter.

Among the disruptions they are expecting are rallies, vehicle problems and collisions.

“The challenge that we see now is our fellow citizens who want to stage rallies and block the routes,” he said.

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Miano said the task force is composed of 32,000 people from different agencies, including, police, military and civilian. These are the following: PNP and Bureau of Fire Protection, which are both under the Department of Interior and Local Government; Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is under the Department of National Defense; Departments of Foreign Affairs, Transportation and Communication, Tourism, Health, Science and Technology, and Social Welfare and Development; Presidential Security Group; Metropolitan Manila Development Authority; National Security Council; National Intelligence Coordinating Agency; Bureau of Immigration; National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council; Philippine Coast Guard; Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines; and Office of Transport Security. RAM