A total of 442 security personnel—including 100 uniformed policemen, 235 bouncers, plainclothesmen, and teams of drug-sniffing dogs—were deployed for the May 21 open-air concert in Pasay City where five people collapsed and later died in the hospital, the National Bureau of Investigation gathered on Thursday.
Based on the security manpower plan submitted to the NBI by Eventscape Manila, one of the concert organizers, the big force was tasked to monitor the 15,000 attendees, with a ratio of one security officer for every 30 partygoers.
The concert venue was guarded mostly by the bouncers, while the majority of the policemen were posted outside or along the perimeter. It was also the bouncers who were tasked to frisk the attendees before letting them in.
The bouncers were also ordered to confiscate any prohibited item, impose order and control the crowd in case they become unruly.
The plan, presented to the NBI by Eventscape lawyer Francesa Lourdes Senga, said the deployment also tapped 70 mall security guards and three teams in charge of bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs.
Inside the venue, 10 intelligence officers in civilian clothes were also deployed to monitor illegal activities, the plan said.
The police were tasked to check the perimeter, disperse the crowd if needed, and check for security threats like unidentified items and suspicious activities, it added.
“So what happened there? Were the protocols observed?” an NBI agent privy to the investigation told the Inquirer.
Together with the Philippine National police, the NBI is conducting a parallel investigation into the deaths that marred the Closeup Forever Summer concert, which were widely believed to have been caused by party drugs.
The incident outraged presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who in a press briefing late Wednesday vowed to do a massive revamp of the law enforcement agencies once he assumes power.