PNP on heightened alert this Christmas

MANILA, Philippines - The regional offices of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will be placed on heightened alert starting today to ensure hassle-free celebration of the Christmas holiday.

PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima ordered police regional offices in Luzon and the Visayas to observe heightened alert while the Mindanao police region will remain on full alert, said PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr.

Cerbo said the heightened alert status will take effect at 5 p.m. today.

Aside from the Luzon and Visayas police regional offices, the PNP support units, particularly the Special Action Force, the Highway Patrol Group and the Criminal investigation and Detection Group, were also placed on heightened alert.

Cerbo said that the alert status could be lowered or raised by the regional police directors, depending on the prevailing situation in their area of jurisdictions.

He urged the public to observe measures to be safe from criminals during the holidays, especially if they are leaving their houses unattended.

The PNP distributed leaflets to the public to give them guidelines on how to protect themselves from criminals who might take advantage of the holidays.

Holiday truce

Meanwhile, the military vowed to implement “proactive” security measures to ensure public safety despite the holiday truce declared by communist rebels.

“We will not let our guard down and will maintain our proactive and intelligence-based defense countermeasures to prevent imminent attacks to our peace loving citizens and their communities,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr. said.

Burgos stressed that the military is supportive of the peace talks between the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the government. The NDF represents the communist rebels in the peace negotiations.

He said the ceasefire would not bar troops from repelling attacks and defending themselves against atrocities.

Burgos said the military is hopeful that the insurgents would permanently abandon the armed violence that has caused suffering to rural communities and indigenous peoples, destroyed infrastructure and hampered the economic growth of our nation.

On Thursday, the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) declared a 27-day ceasefire to express solidarity with the Filipinos’ celebration of the holidays.

“This will also enable the revolutionary forces to carry out mass assemblies and public demonstrations to mark the 44th anniversary of the CPP and celebrate revolutionary victories of the past year,” CPP said in a statement.

The truce started last Thursday and will be in effect until Jan. 15. The ceasefire was intended to support efforts to resume the peace negotiation, which has been stalled due to various issues.

The military earlier declared a holiday ceasefire that started last Dec. 16 and will end on Jan. 2. The truce, however, will be extended since the government peace panel and the NDF had agreed to end it on Jan. 15.

AFP chief Gen. Jessie Dellosa earlier said the objective of the ceasefire was to demonstrate their “commitment, sincerity and resolve for peace.”

The CPP, the political arm of the rebels, directed its units to “closely monitor any hostile actions being carried out by the enemy armed forces.” – With Alexis Romero, Mike Frialde