BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) is now on the final stages of completing the traffic and security plans for the conduct of the various crowd drawing events in the city in the coming months.
BCPO chief of operations Police Lt. Col. Johnny Balaki said the traffic plans for the upcoming conduct of parades around the central business district is now on its final revision while the security plans for the same events are still subject to adjustments based on the prevailing situation and after putting in place other equally important factors and information from concerned sectors.
The supposed grand opening parade of the 25th edition of the Panagbenga on February 1, 2020 which will be followed by the annual alumni homecoming of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) on February 14-16, 2020; the postponed Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (CARAA) sports meet on February 16-21, 2020; the grand streetdancing parade on February 29, 2020, the grand float parade on March 1, 2020 and the Session Road in Bloom on March 1-8, 2020.
Initially, Balaki disclosed some 300 personnel of the city police force coming from the different police stations will be ready for deployment, aside from the augmentation force that will be provided by the Cordillera Administrative Region Training Center (CARTC) in Teachers Camp and the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, although the same is still subject for negotiations on the actual number of personnel they can spare.
The police official claimed appropriate coordination is also being done with the various communication and volunteer groups to ascertain the number of force multipliers that could be deployed during the major events in the city, aside from the commitment of colleges and universities to extend any required augmentation from their interns and other volunteers wanting to help in providing the needed services to the public on such important city activities.
According to him, there will surely be an influx of residents and visitors during these major crowd drawing events thus the city police force will maximize the deployment of its available personnel without compromising the services to be provided by the different stations to achieve the overall objective of sustaining the decent peace and order situation in the city.
Balaki stated the city police force will release later the final number of police personnel and force multipliers to be deployed in the parade route and the different places where people are expected to converge to ensure that the viewing public is secure.
Balaki assured that the members of the city police force and the force multipliers are ready to provide the public with assistance during these major activities to ensure that they will enjoy the events.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by: Armando M. Bolislis