ILOILO City – A total of 53 Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 personnel have arrived in Cebu City to help in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Gorero, PRO-6’s concurrent spokesperson, disclosed the “selected strong augmentation” boarded a ship Friday last week and arrived over the week end.
The deployment was made upon the recommendation of Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, Philippine National Police deputy chief for operations and concurrent Joint Task Force Covid-19 commander.
The augmentation force from Western Visayas is composed of 50 non-commissioned officers and three commissioned officers.
The contingent, mostly graduates of Basic Internal Security Operation Course (BISOC), is led by Maj. Antonio Benitez.
During the send-off ceremony on Thursday, Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, PRO-6 director, told the augmentation force to be extra careful because “COVID-19 is a high-risk at PRO-7.”
“Show your utmost dedication and discipline to set as an example among others. Thus, share our best practices on how PRO-6 handles the COVID-19 pandemic. Always remember you are carrying the name of PRO-6,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gorero said their policemen’s stay in Central Visayas is indefinite.
The PRO-6 will also be the one to identify the specific task of Western Visayas’ cops.
“Western Visayas is always ready to render support whenever needed. We will create reserve forces for the augmentation personnel in case a problem arises,” Gorero said. (With Philippines News Agency/PN)
