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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Our airports at risk: Apec exec
The country’s major airports are vulnerable to shoulder-fired missiles because many are located near crowded residential areas and public roads, a top anti-terror official said yesterday.
The threat posed by shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles could be reduced by restricting vehicles and people near the airports, or moving the facilities to safer sites, said Benjamin Defensor, who heads the anti-terrorism task force of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum.
Although Defensor didn’t single out the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, security at the international facility is critical this year, with Cebu hosting the Asean Ministers’ Summit in December.
But retired Air Force general Adelberto Yap, Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) general manager, believes the airport is safe from terrorist attacks.
He said the houses and the public roads surrounding the MCIA are too far for any shoulder-fired missile to reach its target.
Everywhere else, the airport is surrounded by water, while surrounding lots are owned by the airport.
Test
Airport security threats have concerned many governments and led leaders of Apec’s 21 economies, including the United States, Britain and China, to agree to test this year whether their major airports could repel a terrorist attack using shoulder-fired missiles.
“I will tell you right now our airports are not safe,” Defensor told foreign correspondents.
Under the Apec agreement, only one major airport in each member nation should be tested by a group of aviation experts every year.
Defensor, however, said he would recommend that experts complete tests this year on the country’s top airports, including those in Manila, the formerly US-run Clark and Subic airfields north of Manila and the international airport in Davao City.
“Most of our airports, when they started, have open areas on both ends of the runway. But now, they’re full of residents.
People who go there are not authorized to be there, but they are there,” Defensor said.
Aviation authorities have taken steps to bolster security, but some airports still need improvements, he said, citing Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which is beside residential enclaves with a view of the main runway.
Terror tool
Fears that shoulder-launched missiles have become a terrorist tool have grown since suspected extremists fired SA-7 missiles that narrowly missed a Boeing airliner with Israeli civilians in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002.
APEC security officials fear that a major terrorist attack could deal a serious blow to trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for more than a third of the world’s population, about 60 percent of the world’s GDP and nearly half of global trade.
In Cebu’s case, however, Yap said he is sure that weapons such as shoulder-fired missiles have not yet reached Cebu and should these begin to proliferate here, intelligence reports would alert them beforehand.
Yap said such a weapon would be noticed immediately.
Yap added that the headquarters of the Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS) is located in areas near the residences, at the far end of the airport.
Vigilance
He assured that they already activated the anti-terrorism task force and have augmented the forces of the PCAS and airport guards as early as August.
Yap said they have worked to secure the airport and its perimeter. He pointed out that the airport has acquired nine X-ray machines and has rerouted the entry of departing passengers and employees so that all would have to pass through the X-ray machines.
Even those with all-access passes have to go through the X-ray machines.
Departing passengers are also frisked.
Yap said they have closed several entry and exit points to ensure airport security.
“We are always constantly vigilant,” he told Sun.Star Cebu. (AP)/MEA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 15, 2006 issue)
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