Roxas cops hold dialogue with Muslim community
ROXAS City, Capiz - The members of the Muslim community in Roxas City has expressed willingness to help local authorities by providing information on any suspicious individuals who might take refuge in this city as a result of the ongoing attacks in Mindanao.
In a dialogue attended by officers of the Roxas City- Capiz Muslim Association on Monday, Mayor Alan Celino made an appeal to
2 ‘PUSHERS’/14 the community to be more vigilant and help protect the city from all forms of terroristic acts by providing intelligence information to authorities.
The Muslim community conducting business in Roxas City and Capiz province mostly came from Marawi City.
The dialogue was initiated by Chief Superintendent Luther Lugo III and the city’s officials.
“The purpose of t his dialogue is to protect them [ the Muslim community]. We don’t want to attribute to our Muslim brothers here if somebody will take advantage of the situation in Mindanao by disturbing the peace in our city. They have to police their members and report immediately to authorities in case of new faces coming into the city especially those who are not members of the ( Muslim) community,” Celino said in an interview.
“I am grateful that you were never involved in any illegal activities here in the city,” he said during the meeting.
Roxas City-Capiz Muslim Association president Gambae Palao, on the other hand, thanked the Philippine National Police for inviting them to the dialogue.
“We are thanking the city officials and the PNP leadership for inviting us into a dialogue and we assure them of our cooperation. We don’t want t hat t he good reputation we have displayed for many years now in Roxas City as peaceful members of the community and legitimate businessmen will be tainted,” he said.
“We are saddened by what is happening in Marawi and we hope that the violence will stop soon. We condemned the atrocities committed by the bandits,” Palao added./
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KALIBO, Aklan - At least 10 policemen from the Public Safety Battalion of the Aklan Provincial Police Office (APPO) are expected to be deployed to Marawi City before this week ends.
SPO1 Nida Gregas, public information officer of APPO, said the policemen were part of the 114 policemen from Western Visayas to be deployed.
“We do not know what will be their primary duty when they go to Basilan. They are currently preparing for the official send off in Iloilo anytime,” she said in an interview Wednesday. APPO members had been
e previously deployed during the series of international meetings such as the Asia Pacific Economic Conference and the ASEAN meetings in Iloilo and Boracay Island.
“The 10 policemen had been highly trained. We believe in their capability as policemen,” she said.
Meanwhile, the deployment of 10 policemen from the APPO is not considered a loss to the tight security being i mplemented i n Boracay Island, Gregas said.
“We have sufficient police personnel in Boracay,” she said. PN)
(PNA/