PNP redeploys marshals on passenger buses plying to and from Metro Manila

By Ronron
June 21, 2007

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday has begun redeploying marshals aboard buses plying to and from Metro Manila following incidents of robbery hold-up aboard public transport vehicles in the last few weeks.

Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, Jr. said in a statement yesterday that PNP Deputy Chief for Administration announced the bus marshaling program to members of the Provincal Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (PBOAP) in a meeting last Wednesday in Quezon City.

In a text message, Razon said yesterday: “It’s already being implemented. We are using personnel from the National Capital Region Police Office, the Police Regional Office III, and IV-A (Calabarzon).”

Aside from thwarting possible activities of criminals, the program is also meant to deter terrorist attacks in the capital following the bus bombings and car bomb plot in Mindanao recently.

Pagdilao said the program was temporarily suspended in the last two months because policemen were preoccupied with election duties. It can be recalled that it was the PNP that was deputized by the Commission on Elections for the May 14 polls because the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chose to distance earlier to avoid allegations of engaging in partisan politics.

“We are reviving the program particularly along the North and South Luzon expressways and the stretch of Maharlika Highway in Luzon,” Razon was quoted to have told the PBOAP members in their meeting.

Pagdilao said that to compliment the bus marshal program is the police visibility and anti-crime operations in the main thoroughfares of the Traffic Management Group (TMG) to thwart carjacking, hijacking and highway robbery.

At bus terminals, Razon said policemen will continue to assist private security guards to inspect luggage of and passengers themselves.

“We ask the cooperation of the bus companies and the riding public in the security measures that we are implementing to prevent criminals from taking advantage,” Razon said.

Noting that most of the suspects in bus hold-up incidents boarded during the middle of the trip, Razon advised bus drivers and passengers to avoid picking up passengers along the way because they do not undergo routine inspections.

He said that if the passengers are suspicious-looking, the drivers could just refuse them conveyance.

Pagdilao said the TMG committed to train drivers and conductors of PBOAP on safety and security procedures, such as detection of concealed weapons in passengers. The first seminar, he said, will be conducted in July.

For bus operators and owners, Razon suggested that they equip their units with security gadgets capable of warning police and nearby motorists about ongoing crisis inside.

Pagdilao disclosed that yesterday, the NCRPO also met with Metro Manila bus operators to about the same agenda.

Last May 31, six robbers held up a JMK bus plying EDSA and ended up taking it hostage when police chased them. The robbers killed the bus driver and a civilian passenger before escaping and engaging police in a shootout in Valenzuela City, resulting in the killing of three of them and the arrest of the three others./DMS