TALIÑO
The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) has secured mobile phone signal jammers in time for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) trade ministers’ meetings which starts today in Bohol.
But Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of PRO-7, was tight-lipped on whether or not they would use the jammers which prevent cellular phones from receiving signals from base stations.
“It will all depend on the situation as the meetings progress. I can’t give you the details for now,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Policemen were deployed on Panglao Island in Bohol by batches starting last Monday, April 17.
Taliño said at least 3,200 policemen will secure the participants of the Asean trade ministers’ meeting in Cebu.
“We expect the full deployment of policemen by Wednesday,” he said.
Despite the gunfight between government troopers and armed men believed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf in Inabanga town, Bohol, last April 11, Taliño said the delegates have nothing to worry about their security.
“We must remember that the tension is confined in Inabanga town. Bohol is generally peaceful,” he said.
Taliño said some participants of the Asean meetings expressed their desire to move around the province and visit local tourist spots after the event.
The PRO-7 director said all the delegates and participants will be escorted by policemen until they leave Bohol.
The Asean meetings on Panglao Island, Bohol, is from April 19 to 22.
The same security measures the police used during the Asean meetings in Cebu will be used in Bohol.
Taliño said the areas near the venue of the Asean meetings in Bohol have been declared “no-sail, no-fly zones” during the duration of the event.
Taliño said their counterparts in the Philippine Coast Guard, the Maritime Police and the Philippine Navy are guarding the shores of Bohol, while members of the Philippine Air Force are monitoring the skies.
Less than 300 delegates are expected to join the Asean trade ministers’ meetings in Bohol.
“I’m asking our people to be vigilant and alert at all times. If you notice suspicious-looking persons and unusual events, report it immediately to the police,” said Taliño, who is currently in Bohol to monitor the Asean meetings and the ongoing operations to locate and arrest the remaining members of the armed group that entered Inabanga last week.
Last April 11, armed men engaged government troopers in a gunfight in the mountain village of Napo, Inabanga town, Bohol province.
At least six suspected ASG members, three soldiers and one policeman were killed.