President Xi to participate in G20, APEC summits

Xi is visiting the Philippines from November 17 to 19 to attend the APEC Summit, as Manila and Beijing remain locked in a dispute over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

He said that the Philippine leadership extended their warmest welcome to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned presence at the summit and considered Xi’s visit the most important support for the host.

The ambassador added that these security plans were made with the security teams including the Presidential Security Group.

“So at this point we will continue to have our signal”, he said.

But Paynor said that the budget, which came from the 2014 and 2015 budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) worldwide commitments fund, is an “investment” that stems from the country’s membership in multilateral forums like Apec.

This practice allows this seating arrangement: The leader of the host economy sits in the middle, and on his either side would be the leaders of the previous and future hosts.

Units involved include the Philippine Army in Fort Bonifacio and Joint Task Force-National Capital Region (NCR) based in Camp Aguinaldo, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Noel Detoyato said on Thursday.

In a “Blue Alert”, 50 percent of all available troops and assets are required to be inside camp for immediate deployment in case of emergencies or contingencies.

All military units given security duty for APEC were placed on “Blue Alert” starting Wednesday (November 11).

Tamayo said that in each convoy of the APEC leader, there would be four motorcycles and two mobile patrol cars from HPG apart from the security vehicles from other security agencies.

Meanwhile, Roxas Boulevard is also being prepped with a few “prettying up” for the APEC summit.

China was the host of the APEC a year ago while Peru will be the host in 2016.

Citing a “situation-driven” approach in the security of delegates, Marquez said how the Pope went around the areas he visited would be very much different when the heads of state travel during the economic leaders’ meeting.