20 PN ships, other assets deployed for 30th ASEAN Summit

MANILA–Twenty Philippine Navy (PN) ships, of various changes and sizes, will be deployed to secure delegates of the ASEAN Summit and Related meetings from April 26 to 29 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

PN spokesperson Capt. Lued Lincuna, in a message to the PNA Tuesday, however, declined to give the names and locations of these ships, many of which are now patrolling Manila Bay for security and operational reasons.

Lincuna said these vessels are supported by elite troops from Naval Special Operations and Marine units along with assorted PN planes and helicopters.

Joint Task Force deputy commander Col. Victor Tomas earlier said they are yet to detect any security threats for the coming ASEAN event.

“We are very fortunate to say that there are no threats detected for the coming ASEAN meetings (at the PICC in Pasay City),” he added.

The above-mentioned military unit will serve as the Philippine National Police (PNP) back-up in securing the said event along with other government security agencies.

Despite this, Tomas said security for the meetings will still be tight so they will not be caught flat-footed in case of any untoward incident.

“We don’t want to be overconfident so what we are doing is we are (still conducting) intelligence build-up and (target) hardening,” he added.