40,000 troops to be in Manila ahead of Asean summit

MANILA: The Philippine government will deploy 40,000 security and emergency personnel to thwart terror threats to the Asean Summit in Manila this week, according to government officials.

Ambassador Marciano A. Paynor Jr, director-general for operations of the Asean 2017 National Organising Council, said the government did not want a repeat of the terror attacks in the western capitals in recent years to happen in Manila during the regional summit, which will run from today to Saturday.

“We can no longer consider only domestic security issues. As we all know, European capitals – London, Paris, Brussels – they all have had very serious terrorists attacks,” Paynor said.

“We have been lucky thus far. We would not want any of these things happening here, especially if we have guests and especially as we are hosting these Asean meetings throughout the year,” he said.

Undersecretary Catalino Cuy, the officer in charge of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG), said they have not monitored any specific threat so far against the summit.

“There is no specific threat but we are paid to be paranoid. In our preparations, we consider all possible threats to activities,” Cuy said.