spot_img
28 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Albay Asean confab shelved

- Advertisement -

LEGAZPI CITY—Security threats have forced the National Organizing Committee to cancel the five-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings scheduled to start Monday at the Misibis Resort here, the second time the Bicol region was denied a chance to host an event for foreign dignitaries.

In 2015, Albay was also tabbed to host the Asean Pacific Economic Conference ministerial meetings, which were aborted by Malacañang owing to bad weather.

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said the decision to cancel the Asean meeting was reached by the Asean Committee on Security.

Salceda, who had pushed for Albay to host both Apec and Asean meetings, said he received a letter from Ambassador Marciano Paynor that top officials of the Asean 2017 NOC reached a unanimous decision to recommend the cancellation for the Albay venue conference.

The committee had received intelligence reports that the NPA had deployed 800 improvised explosive devices in Camarines Sur and neighboring provinces to thwart the Asean meeting, the lawmaker said.

- Advertisement -
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda

Albay is a one-hour ride from Camarines Sur.

The Philippines is hosting the meetings of the 10-member regional bloc this year, which is also the 50th anniversary of the Asean.

Earlier, the Philippine National Police in Bicol said security preparations for the meeting were all set, despite the escalating operations of the communist New People’s Army in the region.

The NPA operations in Bicol resulted in an encounter with government troops in Sorsogon on Aug. 8, where two soldiers were killed. 

A succeeding encounter ensued on the island of Catanduanes on August 10, when heavily armed rebels ambushed two police patrol cars in a convoy escorting 10 drug surrenderers. 

The rebels used IEDs that followed a gunbattle with a responding police team that killed two policemen and wounded two others including a local police chief.

The Asean delegates headed for Albay have been transferred to Metro Manila, Salceda said.

Still, the cancellation was “a sad development,” Salceda said, given Albay’s failure to host the Apec meetings in 2015.

Salceda maintained Albay was “deserving” to host meetings of foreign dignitaries.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles