AFP goes on full alert for ASEAN Summit

AFP goes on full alert for ASEAN Summit
By Ronron
January 10, 2007

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) went on full alert on Wednesday in time for the start of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit being held in Cebu.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado said the alert status went effective at 8am, and will only be downgraded upon assessment after the regional leaders’ meeting ends on January 15.

Honrado said the alert status is meant to ensure that all threats of terrorism and other forms of disturbance will be prevented.

Under a full alert status, all AFP officers and soldiers are not allowed to go on leave from work.

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) leadership earlier reiterated to its personnel that it is maintaining during the duration of the summit the highest alert status, which was in effect since the Christmas season.

But just like the NCRPO, Honrado assured yesterday that there is no direct or specific threat of a terrorist attack in Cebu or in other parts of the country.

AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. was in Cebu yesterday and personnel met with officials of the Central Command, based in Cebu City, who briefed him about the security preparations for the Summit, said AFP Public Information Officer (PIO) Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro.

“It’s all systems go. He (Esperon) believes that the AFP has sufficiently prepared to quell possible threats to the summit,” Bacarro told reporters in a phone interview from Cebu./DMS