Manila has tight security ahead of APEC meeting

Manila has tight security ahead of APEC meeting

MANILA (AFP): Philippine forces imposed a security clampdown around key areas yesterday to ensure that the country's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meetings goes without a hitch.

Intelligence sources confirmed that advance security teams for the various heads of state attending the meeting, had begun arriving in the country.

The APEC summit -- involving 18 members' heads of state or representatives -- will take place on Nov. 25.

At least 50 Secret Service men in charge of protecting U.S. President Bill Clinton were among the first to arrive yesterday, bringing in two Sea Stallion helicopters and crateloads of equipment from Guam aboard a military transport, witnesses said.

The other heads of state attending include Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Indonesian President Soeharto.

Starting midnight, the section of the Subic freeport where the APEC leaders' summit will be held, and a huge bayside compound in Manila, where preliminary meetings will take place, will be cordoned off to all but those involved.

"Our foreign counterparts are already confident about the security preparations in Subic but they are still wary about the security arrangements in Manila," one security source said.

The Army has deployed a company of soldiers to secure the edges of the sprawling Subic freeport against the entry of any communist guerrillas even though military officials admit that the threat from this group is remote.

The senior officials attending the preliminary APEC meetings will begin arriving today with most of the heads of state arriving only on Nov. 24.

Despite criticism by militant groups that the government is resorting to the strong-arm tactics of the late deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the administration remains firm in its attempts to foil any attempt to embarrass the country during the meetings.

"We have not received any specific threat so far, but let me stress that whether we have intelligence (reports) or not we will assume there is," said retired armed forces chief of staff Lisandro Abadia, head of the APEC national organizing committee.

Various foreigners have been barred from entering the country on suspicion that their presence would disrupt the summit. Among them is Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Jose Ramos Horta, a critic of Indonesia's policy on East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which integrated into Indonesia in 1976.

While no real terrorist plots have been uncovered, leftist groups have vowed to stage massive protests against APEC, including a scheduled protest vehicle "caravan" from Manila to Subic, to coincide with the summit there.

A "dry run" of the caravan, held on Nov. 14, ended messily when residents and authorities in the city of Olongapo City, just outside Subic, forcibly prevented the activists from approaching the site.

Undeterred, organizers have promised to bring 7,000 people in various vehicles for another "caravan" to start from Manila on Nov. 24.

Presidential legal adviser Renato Cayetano warned yesterday that while they might have the right to use the highway, they would not be allowed to impede traffic.

Police arrested 13 leftist activists yesterday for plastering anti-APEC posters on walls in Manila.

Although the activists are being charged with vandalism, rather than for opposing APEC, their arrests reflect the increased vigilance of the authorities who in the past, often ignored the leftists' frequent defacement of private property during their demonstrations.