SECURITY MEASURES FOR upcoming asean meet
After the success of Sinulog 2017, the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) is considering another cell site shutdown as part of the security measures for an international summit to be held in Cebu and Bohol province next month.
Chief Supt. Noli Taliño of PRO-7 said that the Cebu and Bohol Task Forces were hastening up their contingency plan for the series of meetings which are part of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in these provinces from April 3 to 7.
“Magkahiwalay ’yung dalawang task force. And in this contingency planning ico-consider natin lahat ng possible scenarios. ’Yung task force sila ’yung magde-determine ng scenarios at course of actions na dapat gawin ng bawat grupo considering all the persons present during the summit (The two task forces will have separate functions. And in the contingency planning, all possible scenarios are considered. The task forces, however, will determine the scenarios and the courses of action that each group would need to do especially considering all the persons present during the summit),” he said.
These scenarios will include terrorism attacks, security threats and the possible shutting down of telecommunication signals during the summit.
Taliño, however, said that the shutting down of telecommunication signals was not final yet because they were still waiting for the presentation of the two task forces of their contingency plan.
Taliño said that if ever they would request for the shutdown of the cell phone signals, they would also consider the venue of the meetings.
“Depende din sa security situation kung kailangan i-shut down ’yung entire area, gagawin natin kung mataas ’yung threat. Pag hindi naman, posibleng hindi naman natin isha-shut down ’yung signal (It will depend on the security situation. If there is a need to shut down the cell phone signals in the entire area, then we will do it especially if the threat is really high. If not, then we would not implement the signal shutdown),” Taliño said.
He said that the PRO-7 so far had not received any security threat nor specific information about a threat for the Asean summit.
After the task forces determine the top five possible scenarios whether they be human induced, including terrorism and natural disasters, the PRO-7 would then conduct simulation exercises.
As part of the security measures, the police had also heightened their alert for the top 10 most wanted persons in Cental Visayas.
Yesterday, Taliño led the anti-criminality campaign activity where they disseminated information of the most wanted persons in the region.
They distributed foldable fans and flyers where the faces of the most wanted persons in the region are printed. The fans and flyers were given in terminals and ports in Metro Cebu.
Taliño said that this would help the regional police to locate the whereabouts of these most wanted men, which are also part of the security measures for the upcoming Holy Week and summer vacation.
“This is also part of our preparation for the security of Asean summit,” Taliño added.