The Philippine National Police and the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Negros Oriental launched yesterday afternoon joint operations in Dumaguete City, to ward off possible terror attacks amid a full security alert status in the country. PNP provincial director, Senior Supt. Nestor Tiempo, said the stepped up security measures are also being carried out as hundreds of participants of the two-day national convention on the federalism movement are converging in Dumaguete today and tomorrow. Tiempo led the joint PNP-Army operations, starting with the conduct of checkpoints and the inspection of at least three big shopping centers in Dumaguete City, namely, Cang's Department Store main branch, the Lee Super Plaza and the Robinsons Place shopping malls. He said the joint visibility patrols with the Army follows a directive from the Chief PNP, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, to undertake proactive measures to prevent any untoward incidents following the Davao bomb blast. The joint police-military operations will also attempt to cover inspection of hotels and resorts if time allows it, said Tiempo. He explained that they are currently focused on providing maximum security for the delegates to the national convention organized by the Hugpong Federalism Movement, to be held at the Negros Oriental Convention Center in Dumaguete City. President Rodrigo Duterte was earlier expected to keynote the opening on Friday morning but he may not be able to make it to the national convention. Nevertheless, security measures are already in place for the gathering, which will also be attended by some Cabinet members. Police personnel from the different city and municipal police stations in Negros Oriental have been deployed to Dumaguete City to augment existing security forces here for the two-day activity, Tiempo said.*JFP Online Visayan Daily Star english Newspaper Today Epaper
Not directly related but I found this to be quite interesting: Dela Rosa orders 24/7 nationwide checkpoints This has a list of checkpoint procedures and info on what is and isn't allowed. Small excerpt: - Never step out of the vehicle - Lock all doors of vehicles during inspection – only visual search is allowed - Never submit to physical and body search - Motorists are not required to open the glove compartment, trunk, or bags
Yeah, it's hard to discuss in such a situation. However just for the fun of it I'll do a printout and keep it handy in the car ;-)
We encountered a similar style of check point driving back from Cebu City by Argao a check point stopped us and tried to get us out of the car to talk to the commander or chief ( forget the exact words it was about 2 years ago) My wife immediately said no hun don't do it. So I refused to exit the car and said if he wants to talk to us he can come here. They refused to let us pass without a bribe so we just u-turned and sat at the closest resort until they left around 5pm to go eat. My wife was correct, had we exited the car we would have been exposed to evidence planting and confiscation of our car and jail time. Which translates to lots of Peso's
The hilarious part about these security check points is the very large groups of people on M/C's sitting a few meters away on both sides of the check point waiting for it to go away. The PNP or AFP never bothers to approach these people to find out why they are refusing to pass. A terrorist group with guns and bombs traveling in a group of M/C's can just wait them out.
Strange you should mention argao,was also stopped there by a currupt bunch of cops trying to extort foreigners. The in charge was very anti foreigner also,if I had been on my own reckon I would have been locked up but the wife was there,cost us a few peso but managed to get last ferry
