OUTDOORS VIP PROTECTION

IT IS SAD TO NOTE THAT with the proliferation of loose guns and cheap contract assassins, many individuals have become crime statistics common among the offices of the homicide section of every police station here in the Philippines. Almost ninety percent of these are unsolved owing to the the lack of competence and credibility of the police to solve murder crimes or the absence of trust on the police by the witnesses, victims and/or survivors to provide adequate protection on them.

The latter have been most wanting due to the fact that very few private individuals or firms offer professional protection services that cater specifically to executive and personal protection and that they do not come cheap. In this country, only the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and the PNP Security Protection Office (PSPO) are publicly known to provide personal/life protection services for VIPs, corporate executives and other individuals under threat. Both organizations, however, are in the government.

Some individuals from the military or the police are known to moonlight as bodyguards for certain individuals. But, sad to say, most of these guys don't have the proper training and etiquette to do this kind of work. Guarding a person, especially if he or she is a VIP or a corporate executive, is an art in itself. There are rules and there are dos and don'ts. One may find this out if he is schooled in a VIP Security Protection Course offered only with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) or with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

I have not heard of any private individual or agency offering an executive protection training except one here, of all places, in Cebu City, the murder capital of Central Philippines. I am referring to the Felisarta Protection Sciences Center (FPSC). I have a copy with me of the first edition of the Executive Protection Manual (The Samurai Warrior Way!) by German C. Felisarta, President of FPSC. I found the book by Mr. Felisarta an excellent tool for every aspiring bodyguard and to people whom all would want to avail of executive protection service.

In this respect, I am also a (free-lance) VIP security protection specialist and would want to offer executive protection service to any individual under threat. I learned this craft when I was then connected with the PNP, especially during my training in the Police Intelligence Course in 1991, where I was taught the rudiments of VIP security protection, close protection drills and their different formations. Then, during my training in SWAT in 1992 my skills were further honed under the tutelage of an Israeli anti-terrorist (Sayaret Matkal) commando officer.

Later, I was tapped to be a part of a convoy of escorts during the visits here in Cebu of President Corazon C. Aquino and President Fidel V. Ramos from 1991 to 1993. In 1995, Mr. Nobou Sasaki, a Japanese executive of Yusen Air and Sea Services hired me as his personal bodyguard for six (6) months. In 2001, Mr. Nelson Flores, a legal researcher of the Regional Trial Court Branch 20 , 7^th Judicial Region and Mr. Vicente Gesto, a businessman, both hired me to protect them against threats for a total of seven (7) months.

During the year 2002, I was in Metro Manila, as part of a protection team of Mrs. Soledad Mendoza, wife of then PNP Chief, Police Director General Leandro Mendoza, for seven (7) months. My stint in Manila taught me the realities of extreme difficulties encountered during vehicle security convoys on cruise at EDSA and the impracticality of maintaining a continuous vehicle formation on that busy stretch of road. It also taught me to deal with extreme caution and alertness and, sometimes, with limitless humility and utmost patience, with other security teams of other VIPs.

Last November 2006, I was head of the events security tasked to secure Bo Sanchez and his entourage of Kerygma lay preachers during their comedy concert entitled “Botoks” held at the Grand Cebu Convention Center and during two days of the 2^nd TWO Orienteering Cup last July 2007, I was contracted to design and enforce security measures to secure all the participants within a 15-kilometer radius of the event venue in Mountain View Resort in Cebu City. The last event was very successful despite the huge area to monitor at and employing very few manpower.

I specialize more in offering executive protection services in an outdoor setting, especially during day hikes, multi-day treks, camp-outs, spelunking or adventure races. This different kind of protection service is tailor-made for tourists and hyper-active executives and demand nothing more than being physically fit all the time, familiarity with the terrain and mastering the different outdoor disciplines. I have acquired enough experience with this kind of work through the years during mountaineering sorties of different individuals who contracted me as their personal bodyguard and guide on the trail.

A word of advice: There is no such thing as a driver-bodyguard. A bodyguard is not effective when his attention is divided between keeping watch over his principal and driving. A brain could not accommodate two or more tasks together with great efficacy. Driving a vehicle should be confined only to the driver or to the principal himself but never to the bodyguard, whose main task is to keep his hands, and his eyes, free from being preoccupied with other things. Lives are at stake here and professionals would never want to destroy their honed reputations by being caught off-guard behind the wheel.

My advice: Hire only the best – the professionals!

Document done in OpenOffice 2.1 Writer, Trebuchet MS font, size 12.