Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde, head of the NCRPO (Photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
One of the challenges faced by the security forces deployed at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Manila is the lack of portable toilets and drinking water.
More than 4,000 police officer, enduring the searing heat to secure roads in Manila for the Asean meetings this week, have not been provided with enough portalets and water supply.
Director Oscar Albayalde, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), discovered this when he inspected the troops – composed of police officers from different units and regions – on Wednesday morning, the first day of the international summit.
“Nakita natin ‘yung mga kalagayan ng mga CDM [civil disturbance management[ contingents sa iba’t ibang places kung saan sila nakadeploy, particularly along Roxas Boulevard,” Albayalde said in a news brieiing at the command center for Asean security. “Kulang na kulang. Baka may ma-heatstroke pa na members ng CDM.”
(“We saw the situation of the CDM contingents in different contingents in different place where they are deployed, particularly along Roxas Boulevard. There’s a big shortage. Some members of the CDM might even suffer heatstroke.”)
Albayalde said the Asean joint task force should have ensured that the civil disturbance cops would be provided with these necessities since their deployment on Monday.
Top officials who composed the Asean security task force sent off more than 40,000 troops in a ceremony at Rizal Park in Manila on Sunday.
“Dapat nakita nila ito noong Sunday pa sa sendoff,” Albayalde said. “You could just imagine nandyan sila tapos kulang ng provision sa portalets at tubig. Umiinom lang sila kapag may meal na.”
(“They should have seen that during the sendoff last Sunday. You could just imagine them there without the provision of portalets and water. They could only drink during meals.”)
He said he had asked the task force leaders to provide around 80 to 100 portalets in the areas where these cops were deployed.
Around 4,000 police officers have been sent to secure the venues and the billeting areas of the delegates, particularly around the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), and Sofitel in Manila. /atm