Policeman suffers minor injury in final dry-run for ASEAN Summit

A motor-cycling policeman suffered minor injury in Cebu Tuesday in Cebu City, the Philippines, during the final dry-run traffic in preparation for the 12th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) re- scheduled on Jan. 12, organizers said Tuesday.

Despite one minor accident involving the motorcycle-riding policeman, Marciano Paynor Jr., secretary general of the Philippine National Organizing Committee (NOC) of the 12th ASEAN Summit, said everything went "smoothly and successful" as planned.

Paynor told a press conference that the dry-run "met most of our expectations," particularly in the management of traffic in major routes to be used by the convoy of vehicles for leaders of ASEAN during their stay in Cebu.

The unidentified policeman suffered a minor injury in the accident that happened in front of the city's Mandaue General Hospital.

Retired Maj. Gen. Leo Alvez, assistant secretary general for security, said the minor mishap would not in any way hamper the preparations for the summit.

"The dry-run came out okay," Alvez said, adding that since it has been "raining the past few days, some accidents were expected to happen."

Alvez stressed that he did not foresee a major problem ahead, adding he was confident that traffic would be "orderly" throughout the summit.

The traffic dry-run started amid rainy weather at 9 a.m. with major roads from the Marco Polo Plaza to the airport temporarily closed for the simulated motorcades of the summiteers, resulting in large-scale traffic congestion in the city.

NOC and security officials earlier said that at most traffic would be delayed by not more than one hour when ASEAN leaders start to move out of their hotels or from the conference venues.

Some major city thoroughfares will be temporarily closed as part of security arrangements for the visiting leaders of ASEAN members and its dialogue partners.

Source: Xinhua