Bacolod ‘90% ready’ for APEC conference

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Mayor Monico Puentevella said that the city is 90% ready for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference next week.

The mayor said that police personnel are ready to secure the delegates to the APEC meeting slated on April 29 to 30 at the SMX Convention Center.

At least 2,300 policemen – 600 cops from Bacolod City Police Office and 1,700 from Police Regional Office-6 – will be deployed to secure the delegates attending the two-day event.

The delegates of the 21-member countries of APEC will be attending the conference on “Disaster Risk Finance-APEC Roadmap for Resilient Economies,” which will start at 8 am.

Protest action

Puentevella ordered the police and the military to exercise maximum tolerance in dealing with militants who will stage protest actions during the APEC meet. 

The mayor claimed that all cities in the country that have hosted any APEC meetings were confronted with the same concern.

The mayor said that he will not give permits to demonstrators, as he appealed to the militant groups to forego their protest actions.

The mayor reiterated to government forces to be cautious in dealing with the demonstrators.

Senior Supt. Melchor Coronel, city police chief, said they will deal with the protesters appropriately but will utilize dispersal units should rallyists try to disrupt the proceedings.

Coronel confirmed that crowd control equipment was issued to the local police to maintain peace and order.

BCPO received 548 helmets, 448 shields, 92 masks, and 236 batons from the Philippine National Police headquarters and PRO-6.

Also, 35 vehicles – 20 Toyota Altis and 15 motorcycles – were turned over to the BCPO. The vehicles will be utilized for security and convoy. – Rappler.com