Global terrorism and the ASEAN Summit
In the most unlikely event that a mentally-deranged or an ideologically-driven terrorist should commit any overt act of terrorism and thus threaten the life, security, and safety of a delegate to the ASEAN summit, either before, during or after this historic event, what would be the most appropriate response to such outrageous and despicable act? The answer is simple and succinct: Neutralize the terrorist, isolate him, disable him and even kill him, if he poses a grave and imminent danger to the participants or the security personnel. The 60,000 strong security contingent put up by us as the host country should have enough alertness, will power and competence to handle the situation with a great sense of decisiveness and urgency.
Every life in the ASEAN Summit is not just a personal or private matter. In a global and regional conference like this, there is nothing personal. Everything is a state responsibility and a government accountability. The Philippine government's sense of national pride and dignity is at stake before the international community of nations. The whole world looks at our country and renders judgment on our capability to secure no less than the lives of 21 heads of states and governments, together with their spouses and their loved ones, their ministers and their underlings. There are about five thousand members of the delegations coming from 21 states and nations.
The threat of global terrorism is a perennial reality that continues to pose a grave and imminent danger to all of us. Even New York, Texas, Paris, and London are not spared from these modern phenomena. And so we Filipinos should help our government in making sure that no visitor shall suffer any slight hematoma. There should be no unusual movements or noise that could cause panic or disorder, chaos or conflagration. We should check our fire exits, review our protocols and make sure that we are ready to lead our visitors to safety in case of fire, earthquakes, or terrorist attack.
Instead of attacking our government or deriding our police forces, we should help in the maintenance of order, security, and peace. This is because the Summit is not the proper time to cause distraction to our authorities. We should reserve our complaints after the last visitor shall have departed. We should not wash our dirty linens before the global and regional arena.
It is not an easy task to undertake such a nightmarish security mission. The police authorities are having sleepless nights and they could hardly rest given this tremendous challenge before them. If we cannot help them, at least, we should understand their predicament and pray for their success.
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