The Philippine National Police (PNP) is seeking more active involvement in the planning stage and the actual security implementation on big concerts following the death of five people in Pasay City last week.
Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, PNP spokesman, said their proposal is aimed at preventing the repeat of any incident wherein big concerts are being used as a venue for illegal drugs use, particularly the so-called party drugs such as ecstasy.
“We should be proactive in this. The event organizers, their security, the law enforcement agency and the local government units should cooperate for shared responsibility and accountability,” said Mayor.
Mayor explained that the cooperation should start in the planning stage of the concert or similar big events, with the police being included in the discussion of security layout.
Part of the security planning, according to Mayor, is the deployment of police personnel inside the concert venue both for security and intelligence-gathering, especially against party drugs.
“Police personnel should be embedded inside. And if it is enough, the law enforcers should be informed to deploy more,” said Mayor.
Five people collapsed during the Close Up Forever Summer concert at the Mall of Asia parking lot where more than 14,000 people attended. Initial findings revealed that four of the five victims who were subjected to autopsy died of heart attack and swelling of internal organs.
