AIRPORT CHECK.
Senior Superintendent Christopher Tambungan (center), deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office 6, inspects the Iloilo Airport together with Superintendent Gilbert Gorero (left), regional police spokesperson, and an airport security officer. The Western Visayas police is on full alert following the declaration of martial law in Mindanao.
ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) has not monitored security threats to the region but stresses the importance of vigilance. It has put its men on full alert status following the clashes between government troops and the Maute terrorist group in Marawi City in Mindanao.
At 10 a. m. yesterday, Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, acting police regional director, ordered various police units to intensify security measures that included the conduct of checkpoints.
Binag’s deputy regional director for operations, Senior Superintendent Christopher Tambungan, inspected bus and jeepney terminals, seaports and airports.
With PRO-6 spokesperson Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, Tambungan went inside the Iloilo Airport and talked to airport security personnel.
The Iloilo Police Provincial
Office ( IPPO) also deployed a six- man Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to the Iloilo Airport.
Because the PRO-6 is on full alert, no policemen are allowed to take leaves except for those who are sick.
Strategic areas were posted with policemen.
“There’s an accounting of personnel,” said Gorero.
Gorero also urged civilians to report to the police anything suspicious in their communities.
“The situation (in Mindanao) is under the government control but we need to strengthen our security ( in Western Visayas) because we have tourist spots and we need to protect the tourists,” he said. Meanwhile, IPPO director Senior Superintendent Harold Tuzon met with the leaders of the Muslim community in the municipality of Dueñas to secure their support to the police’s peace and order campaign.
“We had a good conversation. We also talked about what’s happening in Marawi City,” said Tuzon./