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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Tuesday, March 7, 2017
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ILOILO City – Can the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) keep this city crime-free for the duration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings?
The goal is to avert “major crimes”, according to Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, PRO-6 spokesperson.
The two-day 22nd Senior Officials Committee for the ASEAN (SOCA) Council Meeting opened yesterday at the Iloilo Convention Center in Mandurriao district amid tight security. The PRO-6 also deployed the final batch of its forces to secure the delegates.
The first batch was mobilized on March 1.
The PRO-6 hopes to replicate its successful security measures when Iloilo City hosted several meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2015. The crime volume dropped by 9.48 percent, according to APEC site sub-task group (SSTG) for peace and order.
For the ASEAN meetings, the regional police is getting help from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and even from barangay officials, said Gorero.
“We want to avoid major security incidents,” he stressed.
The PRO-6 hosted a send-off ceremony for its security forces at its headquarters in Camp Delgado a day before the start of the SOCA Council Meeting. Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, regional police director, appealed for the public’s support.
Tomorrow, the two-day ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Council Meeting opens also at the Iloilo Convention Center.
Gorero said police assistance centers were set up even in areas far from the convention center and even at night since March 1 cops were patrolling the streets.
“We want to make sure that our foreign and local visitors are safe,” said Gorero.
To ensure the smooth flow of traffic, policemen and the city’s traffic auxiliaries were also tasked to be on the streets on extended hours.
An 18-day gun ban is currently being enforced, too. It started on March 3 and would end on March 18. Only members of the police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and other law enforcement agencies performing official duties are allowed to carry firearms but they must also be in their agency-prescribed uniforms.
Iloilo City is also hosting the 3rd ASEAN – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Good Regulatory Practice Network Meeting from March 14 to 16.
When this city hosted the APEC meetings two years ago, the site sub-task group (SSTG) for peace and order posted “722 accomplishments” in the areas of arresting wanted persons, staging anti-illegal drug operations and apprehending traffic violators.
The sub-task group mobilized over 2,000 Philippine National Police personnel. Including those from other law enforcement agencies, it had more than 3,500 men ensuring peace and order.
For the ASEAN meetings, the PRO-6 declined to give the specific figure of the policemen it is mobilizing for security reasons. But Gorero said it is by the thousands.
Iloilo City hosted three APEC meetings that kicked off on Sept. 21, 2015 and ended on Oct. 6, 2015. These were:
* Small and Medium Enterprise Meeting from Sept. 21 to 25, 2015
* High Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and the Blue Economy from Sept. 28 to Oct. 6, 2015; and
* Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum from Sept. 22 to 23, 2015.
Iloilo also hosted the APEC technical working group meeting entitled “Fostering APEC’s Infrastructure through Long-Term Investment and Capital Market Development” from July 23 to 24, 2015./PN
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