Asean Summit(s)

[OnMyWay]

The Asean Summits are coming to the Philippines again, and activities are ramping up.

We were down by MOA Thursday-Sunday, and they already have tons of police deployed in the area.  There are little posts on almost every corner around the Conrad hotel.  They were very nice and polite, and always said hi to us.  There must be a lot of activities already ongoing there.  Across the street, there was a long line of vans ready to be used.  Every once in a while, we would here sirens going and see the vans zoom off with police escorts.  This was our night view from the 12th floor of the Microtel, overlooking all the activities on that main corner.  You can see some of the vans in the lower left.

On EDSA, they have the plastic barriers staged that will create the ASEAN lane in the middle, and related signs are also staged.

I guess the main week is the 12th to 17th.  They had previously announced school closures in Manila for the 16 and 17th.  Now they have taken it further.  It will be a work and school holiday in NCR, Pampanga and Bulacan on the 12th to 15th.  I assume the 16-17th is still just schools.

Why Pampanga?  Apparently there are also a lot of activities at Clark.  When we were driving home Sunday, we saw 5-10 convoys going south to Manila, lights blazing.  Usually a convoy was one police transport in the front (I assume filled with police) then 2 large luxury type vans, followed by another police vehicle.

So, if you are planning anything in Manila or Clark, be aware.  Here are some related links:

http://www.asean2017.ph/events/category/all-events/

http://www.thesummitexpress.com/2017/10/walang-pasok-november-13-15-2017-non-working-days-ncr-pampanga-bulacan.html

[BrettGC]

Oh Joy, flying out of Manila on the 13th...

[scott h]

26 minutes ago, BrettGC said:

Oh Joy, flying out of Manila on the 13th...

Hopefully you will not be effected. From what I understand almost all of the dignitaries are flying into Clark. (hence the convoy practices on nlex) and most of Manila will be shut down due to mandatory "working holiday". I would stay away from Asiana where most of the events will be and Makati where a lot of the embassies are. But if you stay south of Pasay you should be alright.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

Oh Joy, flying out of Manila on the 13th...

You should be fine unless you want to move around in Manila.  Allow extra time to make your flight.

[BrettGC]

5 hours ago, scott h said:

Hopefully you will not be effected. From what I understand almost all of the dignitaries are flying into Clark. (hence the convoy practices on nlex) and most of Manila will be shut down due to mandatory "working holiday". I would stay away from Asiana where most of the events will be and Makati where a lot of the embassies are. But if you stay south of Pasay you should be alright.

 

4 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

You should be fine unless you want to move around in Manila.  Allow extra time to make your flight.

Well  flying in from Dumaguete so only traffic I'll have to deal with is between T3 and T2 Phil Airlines transfer bus.

[OnMyWay]

A heads up for anyone planning to go to Clark Freeport during the ASEAN summit.

We were there today and there is security all over, but generally not a problem for where we were going.  In addition to police all over, there were some military present, acting as addition security, and we saw some soldiers standing by in riot gear (shields, helmets, etc.)  They may be expecting some protests???

The main issue that might impact someone going to visit SM Clark or the freeport would be extra traffic due to extra security checking.  We almost always come into the freeport on SCTEX at the Clark South exit, and no problem there.  Heavily armed military doing the vehicle checks but he just had us roll down the window and saw we were a family, so on we went.

The bottleneck is coming into the freeport at the main gate near SM.  We were going the opposite direction out of the freeport there, going to S & R Dau, and the traffic into that freeport gate was backed up for a long ways, past SM and into Angeles.  That was about 2 pm; not rush hour yet.  I think they are doing heavy vehicle inspections.  Avoid that gate into the freeport.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Just for fun... Have you seen the tarps?  And the Facebook post about them?    It's More Fun In The "Philppines" ha ha 

Sending herewith the official statement from DILG sent thru text message by Ms. Kristine Torres, Chief PIO of DILG-NCR re: erroneous ASEAN tarps. Thank you:

"The Task Unit Community Relations is in the process of removing the tarpaulins. We humbly extend our apology to the public for this oversight. We would also like to thank our netizens for calling our attention on the matter."

[OnMyWay]

34 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

Just for fun... Have you seen the tarps?  And the Facebook post about them? 

I probably have seen those along the road, but didn't notice the error.  I also saw a few FB posts about them.

[not so old china hand]

I flew through Manila yesterday (9th November). My onward flight was delayed by about an hour. During this time I saw at least two US Air force transport planes (C5 Galaxies?) landing and taking off. I wondered if these had any connection with the ASEAN summit.

[Jake]

1 hour ago, not so old china hand said:

I flew through Manila yesterday (9th November). My onward flight was delayed by about an hour. During this time I saw at least two US Air force transport planes (C5 Galaxies?) landing and taking off. I wondered if these had any connection with the ASEAN summit.

Possibly T-Rump is coming to town?  Those C-5's may be off loading security, vehicles and equipment for his arrival.   Oh joy......like BrettGC said.