Full alert ordered as city, province brace for Labor Day 'unrest'
Hundreds of uniformed police have been called in for today's celebration of the Labor Day as augmentation forces of the Philippine Army are on standby, ready to respond if necessary.
Such, as Iloilo City once again play 'host' to various rallies and protest marches from members of militant groups here. As practiced in the past years, transport sector will also go on strike to dramatize their sentiments over long-standing issues of oil price hike and the never-ending issue on oil deregulation.
Over the weekend, key players in the transport community were finalizing 'untat biyahe' plans with majority of the drivers and jeepney operators plying the city routes bent on today's slowdown. Last-ditch negotiations aimed to get the full support of provincial jeepney operators and drivers as well as provincial buses for a day-long transport strike. The group's main battlecry - recent oil price increase and unresolved sentiments against what they have since said was the government's failure to deliver basic social services.
Operatives of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) will man the city's main streets and identified protest venues to ensure peace and order. A standing policy of "no-permit, no-rall"y will be implemented however The News Today (TNT) gathered from ICPO sources of repeated reminders for the various police offices on the standing order for maximum tolerance.
Red flags and government-bashing placards are expected to adorn major thoroughfares as contingency measures were drawn over the weekend to address possible impact of the transport strike.
Arrests will only be done in "extreme" cases, a top city cop said while adding that despite the hyped up numbers in expected rallyists, the ICPO is confident of staying on top of the situation and get everything under control.
Meantime, tighter security is up in vital government installations both in the city and province of Iloilo particularly on power plants and cell sites of telecommunication companies. Sources from the intelligence community confirmed the "precautionary measures" that was subject of at least two conferences called in by the police and the military.
While no specifics were released on the probable targets, reports disclosed of "significant" tips gathered from the field that point to said vital installations.
"The main objective there is to cause disruption and destabilize local leadership and these are the local terrorists' contribution or form of accomplishment. Labor Day is particularly marked for such activities so we are keeping our guards up," a TNT source shared.
Both the city and provincial governments of Iloilo will alsohave its official celebration which is expected to draw criticisms from militant groups.