AFP assures Miss Universe pageant to conclude peacefully

MANILA—With the country’s Miss Universe hosting about to go into high gear by the fourth week of January, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Wednesday said it will do everything to secure the safety of the Miss Universe contestants.

This was stressed by AFP public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo in a press briefing.

He, however, clarified that the military will only be playing a support role to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in securing the Miss Universe candidates, staffers and tourists who will be flocking to the country to witness the annual gathering of the world’s most beautiful and lovely women.

Arevalo also stressed that appropriate military units, along with their police counterparts, will be deployed to secure the Miss Universe candidates in whatever part of the Philippines they will be visiting.

“If they will be going in Davao City, they will be secured by the Eastern Mindanao Command’s Joint Task Force Haribon, Central Command if they are going in Cebu, Northern Luzon Command if they are planning to go into Vigan, Ilocos Sur and Joint Task Force National Capital Region if they are going somewhere in Metro Manila area,” he said in Filipino.

And while the AFP is still to detect any direct threat to the pageant, Arevalo said security preparations will be tight and similar to the one implemented during the recently-concluded Black Nazarene Procession or “Traslacion.”