Aquino: Gov’t ready for all contingencies in papal visit

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government is not leaving anything to chance in its preparations for the visit of Pope Francis, and has drawn contingencies for every eventuality, including a stampede.

President Benigno Aquino III gave the assurance on  Friday, January 9, less than a week before the scheduled arrival of  Francis to the Philippines. He said  it is the government’s job to think of worst-case scenarios and prepare solutions in the event that they occur.

One of the major concerns is the possibility of a stampede, especially because even “a small commotion” like a pick-pocketting incident “can cause a ripple effect,” Aquino said.

“With all the pushing in the crowd, in case it results in chaos – the space won’t be any bigger,” he told reporters in a media interview in Romblon.

He said in case of such incidents, the packed crowd “will be even more compressed.”

“That is what we’re trying to solve now with the help of security forces and others, including the MMDA, DOH, etc, wherein we will be making a space for the crowd that can absorb them just in case someone will start chaos or if there’s some sort of surprise, so we can avoid a stampede,” Aquino said.

Aquino said Malacañang will release videos in the coming days showing how crowds had reacted to past papal visits. He said the videos will highlight how the crowd stayed calm when the Pope was still a distance away, but became uncontrollable as he neared.

“When the convoy was near, they (crowd) broke the perimeter and that’s when people could get hurt or when a terrorist, for instance, would have the chance to get near the Pope. We cannot allow that,” he said.

“Of course the visual helps convince everybody in a very short manner or short duration,” he added of the video.

The Pope is scheduled to arrive on January 15 and will stay until the 19th.

‘People are key’

Aquino said the government will deploy 25,000 security forces to the Pope’s mass in Luneta, where 6 million people are expected. (READ: Devil in the details: Protecting Pope Francis in PH visit)

The President also said while the government is in close coordination with Church leaders and the private sector to ensure the success of the visit, the people’s cooperation would be most crucial. 

“The people are the key for this to be organized and peaceful,” he said. 

Aquino also gave assurances that while the government will be pouring resources into the visit, the rest of the country will still be protected.

“I want to emphasize that our obligation isn’t only to the Pope but to the whole Philippines which has needs. So we are preparing for the instance of a problem, and I’d something happens, we have another group that will address that second problem,” he said. – Rappler.com