Security forces on alert in Manila for ADB meeting
Activists stage protest near convention centre
Manila: The national police went on alert yesterday as delegates to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 45th Annual Board of Governors meeting begin to arrive in the capital.
Some 4,000 delegates — comprising top policymakers, business leaders, media, academics, civil society, and development institution representatives — are expected to attend the meeting at the Philippine International Convention Centre (PICC) in suburban Pasay City.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Spokesman Agrimero Cruz Jr said some 3,000 policemen had been tasked to secure the venue for the event as well as provide security to the delegates.
"Our forces had been placed on high alert as a security precaution," he told reporters.
At the start of the event yesterday, several members of the multi-sectoral activist group, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Nationalist Alliance) held a small demonstration near the vicinity of the meet at the PICC.
Demonstration
As the demonstrators assembled and shouted slogans such as "ADB, back off! Philippines not for sale!" the demonstrators burned a mock ADB logo that displays the words "Anti-Development Bank, Promoting poverty in Asia and the Pacific."
Bayan blames the government of President Benigno Aquino and the ADB for being behind the many "anti-poor and anti-development policies that impoverish the people and bankrupt the domestic economy."
It said that the ADB is the main creditor and proponent of programmes that facilitate the sell-off of Philippines to profit-oriented private business, including foreign corporations.
