The Mandaue City police will focus their deployment on commercial establishments as they anticipate tourists to flock there during the summertime. | File photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Deployment of Mandaue City police will focus on commercial establishments, considering that tourists will possibly flock to these areas during summertime.
Among these areas are malls, hotels, and bars where both local and foreign tourists will mostly visit. This is based on their past records in the past years, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Franc Oriol, deputy director for operations of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Oriol said that they already activated their Oplan Summer Vacation or Oplan SumVac, effective last Monday, March 14, where at least 50 personnel were already deployed to different areas of convergence.
“Ang gibuhat nato, naa natay security plan, atoa gi intensify ang deployment nato sa mobile patrol sa mga malls and areas sa mga hotel kay daghan man nangabot sa mga hotel. Based sa amoang consultation sa management, nisaka ang mga number of guests,” Oriol said.
(What we are doing, we have already a security plan, we just intensified the deployment of the mobile patrols in the malls and areas where hotels are located because many would arrive in the hotels. Based on our consultation with management, the number of guests have increased.)
Aside from their deployment in malls and hotels, Oriol said that they would also intensify their police visibility, particularly in the city’s shorelines such as in Pajara Park in Mandaue City and some areas in Barangay Paknaan.
Deployment on Tourist Assistance Desks
Oriol added that they already activated their tourist assistance desks in malls where local and foreign tourists could ask for help when needed.
He said that the number of deployed personnel would depend on the number of malls, which they had continued to finalize as of this posting.
Aside from 50 police personnel, Oriol said that they also tapped assistance from the city’s force multipliers. During the nighttime, they also tasked barangay’s village watchers to patrol their respective areas.
“In every duha ka police, at least upat ka force multipliers ang kuyog nila sa deployment,” he added.
(For every two policemen, there should be at least four force multipliers who will accompany them during the deployment.)
He said that they also activated their foreign liaison section where foreign nationals, either victims or suspects of crime incidents, will be catered to.
Snatching, theft trend during summertime
Oriol said since they would be anticipating a possible uptrend in crimes against properties such as snatching and theft during summertime, they would be countering these possible crimes by deploying their policemen in areas of convergence such as big commercial establishments.
Aside from that, Mandaue police will also focus on preventing crime incidents involving foreign nationals, many of whom are expected to visit Mandaue City during the summer.
Oriol said that since there were no major threats on peace and order in the city, they would only be in normal alert status for the summer and these would mean focusing the deployment of personnel on commercial establishments, shorelines, and hotels among others.
He also appealed to the public to maintain observing health protocols in the city and be vigilant so that they could avoid being victims of lawless acts.
He also reminds parents to strictly look after their children when visiting beaches in the city and make sure to have contact numbers of the police and other law enforcement agencies in case of emergencies.
READ: Cebu City police continue to fine-tune summer vacation security plans