Cuy: PHL hosting of ASEAN is a success

Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge Catalino Cuy said Wednesday the country’s hosting of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nation Summit was a success with "zero incident."

“The hosting is successful,” Cuy, chairman of ASEAN Committee on Security, Peace and Order, and Emergency Preparedness and Response (CSPOEPR), said during a press conference after the final assessment.

“We have successfully performed our duty with zero incident as we have clearly envisioned and planned,” he added.

He said what made the handling of all the ASEAN-related activities successful was the whole-of-nation approach.

“The key was everyone was doing his or her part with the local government units manifesting their cooperation and assistance in providing all the necessary logistical requirements and augmenting the resources of the national government during the preliminary ASEAN meetings and the actual summit,” he said.

He said the establishment and operation of the Multi-Agency Coordination Center served as the nerve center of the CSPOEPR where all member agencies actively engaged to monitor, coordinate and handle all security and safety concerns on the ground.

Philipine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa had said that there were no direct threats, including from terrorists groups, to the regional summit.

Dela Rosa had also said that the security teams were only told to focus on mass actions, mainly conducted by militant groups opposed to US President Donald Trump's attendance to the ASEAN summit.

After President Rodrigo Duterte opened the summits on Monday, policemen and protesters clashed in Manila.

Authorities only reported the violent protest's casualty on the police's side. A few policemen were sent to the hospital due to injuries.

Protest groups, meanwhile, hit the police's use of a sonic weapon during the dispersals. —ALG, GMA News