Police ready to secure dinagyang festival 19

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

SENIOR Superintendent Martin Defensor Jr., director of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), assured that they are 95 percent ready in maintaining peace and order during the Dinagyang Festival highlights on Jan 25-27, 2019.

“We are almost 95 percent ready. More than 6, 000 security officers will monitor the security of the city including its partners such as Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), college and universities, cause-oriented groups, local government units (LGUs), and non-government organizations (NGOs),” Defensor said.

ICPO reported a 69.39 percent decrease on eight focus crimes during the Dinagyang Festival last year.

“Last year wala gid significant na incidents but only 15 minor incidents were recorded which is lower compared to the 49 incidents recorded during the Dinagyang Festival 2017,”PINSP Mercylin Duero, Deputy Chief Operations and Plans Section, ICPO said.

This year, Defensor assured that checkpoints will be present at all entrance points of the Dinagyang festivity areas.

Also, task units will be in charge of maintaining order even in the peripheral areas of the city, according to Defensor.

“While busy sa Dinagyang, may task unit nga anti-criminalty para sila yung babantay sa peace and order sa siyudad,” Defensor said.

 

Based on the intelligence unit of ICPO, there are no bomb and other threats against the city.

But Defensor said that they already requested for the signal jamming of mobile phones as a security protocol.

“We already applied signal jamming during the two days of festival highlights but we are still waiting for their approval,” he noted.

Once approved, all signals particular in the City Proper area will be cut during the two-day highlights of the festival on January 26-27, 2019 from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.