Cocpo: alert up for Christmas holidays

With Christmas just around the corner, the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) is beefing up security measures to deter criminality and maintain peace and order around the city.

Chief Inspector Mardy Hortillosa II, Cocpo spokesperson, said the security plan being put in place includes anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency campaign following the terror and bombing threats and the termination of the peace negotiations.

“Naa naman daan nga security plan ato lang gidugang ang anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency human nag end ang peace talks kay basin mo-increase ang violent actions sa mga New Peoples Army (We already have existing security plan, we just add anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency campaign after the end of peace talks because we assumed that the violent actions of the NPA may increase),”Hortillosa said.

The Cocpo has raised its alert level beginning December 1 and policemen in the city will remain on heightened alert until the first week of January 2018, Hortillosa said.

Hortillosa said the types of criminal activity that usually spike during the holiday season are robbery, theft, burglary, snatching, pick pocketing, and the proliferation of counterfeited money.

Hortillosa said city police director Senior Superintendent Robert Roy Bahian has also ordered all station commanders and special unit chiefs to monitor their respective jurisdictions and maximize deployment to ensure safety and security of the public especially in places of convergence.

Hortillosa said policemen have been directed to intensify the conduct of border control and security checkpoints, frequent police visibility, and continuous intelligence monitoring to thwart crimes and violence.

He said a number of personnel from the City Mobile Force, the former City Public Safety Company (CPSC), remains at the city’s hinterland villages and are conducting minor operations with the military to prevent possible offensives and atrocities of the communist rebels.

However, Hortillosa said security is not just the police’s duties alone.

He said everyone must be security conscious and should make a personal security plan to avoid being victimized by bad elements.