RP security tight for Asia-Pacific meet
RP security tight for Asia-Pacific meet
By Uday Khandeparkar
SUBIC BAY, Philippines (Reuter): The Naval Magazine used to be
impenetrable, with deep silos where ammunition was stored built
in a heavily guarded clearing between a 12-hectare rain-forest
and the deep waters of Triboa Bay.
Most of the silos have now been demolished to make way for 21
specially built villas, where leaders of the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will stay when they arrive in
this freeport on Nov. 25 for their annual summit.
The villas, which cost $1 million each according to Subic
officials, have been built there not just for views of lush
forest and the blue-green waters of the bay, but because of its
fortified location.
Two or three of the leaders may stay in the villas overnight
on Nov. 25, APEC organizers say, but most will spend just a few
hours there -- safe behind one-foot thick concrete walls and
windows with bulletproof glass.
The security of the 16 visiting leaders, who will include U.S.
President Bill Clinton, is the overriding concern for the
Philippines as summit hosts.
"This was the most secure area when the Americans were here,"
said Ferdinand Roaquin, a public relations officer of the Subic
Bay Metropolitan Authority, which runs the freeport.
The freeport was set up in 1992 on the site of what used to be
the biggest U.S. naval base outside the United States.
For nearly 50 years after the end of World War II, Subic's
deep natural harbor helped the U.S. Navy project its power
throughout the Pacific and to the Asian mainland itself.
Subic was an important asset during the Vietnam War both
because of its port, its rest and recreation facilities and its
Cubi Point naval air station, now a flourishing airport.
The Americans left after the Philippine Senate refused to
renew the lease.
In the next few weeks many Americans will return, though this
time as guests.
"This place will be crawling with Secret Service agents," said
Roaquin as a party of journalists viewed the villas from a moving
bus.
The bus was escorted by the Philippines' elite Presidential
Security Group and was not allowed to stop. Pictures were
forbidden.
The Philippine police and military are mobilizing thousands of
men and women to provide security at Subic and in Manila, where
the leaders will gather on Nov. 24 at the end of an APEC foreign
ministers' meeting.
Tales of how well the villas will be protected abound.
"This was the most restricted place earlier. It had double
fencing and people say one of them was electrified. I don't know
if it may be reactivated during APEC," one resident, speaking
anonymously.
Scheduled to arrive in Subic early on Nov. 25, the leaders
will be taken straight from the airport to their villas, a five-
minute drive away.
They will then gather for a formal welcome from President
Fidel Ramos at the Leaders' Hall in the extensively renovated
former Cubi Point Officers Club.
The renovations have left intact the nose of a Dakota
transport aircraft built into the wall of what used to be a disco
frequented by U.S. military personnel.