5,000 cops guard Metro Manila for All Saints’ Day celebration

By Ronron
October 31, 2007

Around 5,000 cops from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) were deployed starting Wednesday afternoon all over Metro Manila to guard the public during the celebration of the All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

NCRPO chief Director Geary Barias told reporters yesterday at Camp Crame that the PNP will be augmented with 3,000 personnel from the Land Transportation Office, Department of Transportation and Communication, and volunteer organizations, and 500 personnel from the National Capital Region Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“At 1pm today (Wednesday), we will be in full force already for Oplan Kaluluwa. But even before that, we have already assigned policemen in bus terminals,” Barias said.

The NCRPO has retained its full alert status even as the rest of the PNP units was downgraded to heightened level on Tuesday morning following the “generally peaceful” conduct of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls last Monday.

Barias said the NCRPO personnel will particularly focus its guarding in 72 cemeteries all over the metropolis. Public assistance centers will be put up, he said.

“There is no intelligence report on terrorist attack,” Barias said when asked about the security situation in Metro Manila.

Barias expects the alert level of the NCRPO to be downgraded come Saturday if the situation normalizes and no longer warrants for more troop deployments./DMS