Philippine military sets up security force for ASEAN Summit

The Philippine military has created a task force to ensure the safety of the delegates to the ASEAN Summit which will be held at the central city of Cebu in December, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has established the Task Force Alalay, supervised by Brig. Gen. Francisco Villa, the current deputy commander of the AFP Central Command, Bartolome Bacarro, AFP-Public Information Office chief told reporters.

Bacarro said the creation of the new task force is meant to augment the Philippine National Police (PNP) contingent, which will also be deployed to provide security for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The task force will be divided into three components responsible for security on air, sea, and land, working along with explosive experts, he said.

However, the spokesman did not say how many military personnel will be deployed.

Source: Xinhua