PNP to beef up Boracay security for Yuletide
Additional police officers will be deployed to Boracay Island to beef up security for the Yuletide season.
Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas, Western Visayas regional police chief, deployed more than 40 police officers to augment the existing security forces in the island. However, the augmentation force has yet to arrive in Boracay, said Police Officer 1 Aaron Gaton of the Boracay Special Tourist Protection Police Office.
The additional police officers are composed of neophyte PNP members who had just finished the Modified Scout training, Cuevas said. They are divided into two platoons of around 20 persons each.
The deployment of security forces to the island is in anticipation of increased number of tourists in the island during the Christmas season.
Hordes of tourists, both local and foreign, usually go to Boracay Island in Caticlan, Aklan to spend the holidays. The number of tourist arrivals in the island usually increases during December.
In fact, the Department of Tourism expects the arrival of 1,000 to 1,500 Russian tourists starting December up to February next year.
DoT regional director Edwin Trompeta said that tour operators in the country were able to book around 1,500 tourists from Russia who will be spending the winter season in the Island.
An additional 40 police officers were also deployed to augment those already assigned in the Iloilo City Police Office, he said. Augmentation forces were also sent to the Iloilo Police Provincial Office, Bacolod City and the rest of Negros Occidental, and Antique province.
"They will beef up our police stations," Cuevas stressed.
The additional security forces will be conducting visibility patrols in their assigned areas, he said.
"In fact, here in Iloilo, you could already see them patrolling the streets," Cuevas pointed out.