Members of the Philippine National Police force were deployed for Holy Week duty in various ports and transport terminal. Image from Facebook / PNP
MANILA, Philippines — Around 59,000 police officers have been deployed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) to transport terminals and places of convergence nationwide, as people move towards provinces to take advantage of the holidays due to the Holy Week.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo during a press briefing on Wednesday said that they have monitored an increase in the volume of people going to transport terminals like bus stations, airports, and seaports, a day before Maundy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are considered non-working holidays in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country.
“Medyo makapal na ‘yong volume ng tao natin particularly sa mga transport terminals and hubs, and we expect na ngayong araw ay mas dadagsain ng tao because normally halos wala nang nagba-biyahe dyan,” Fajardo said.
“And this is the reason why nagdagdag pa tayo ng tao dyan sa mga terminals, dyan sa mga airports at maging do’n sa mga pantalan, as of April 10 ay nakapag-deploy na tayo ng almost 59,000 na nationwide na ‘yan, at gaya nga ng nasabi ko,” she added.
According to Fajardo, the PNP leadership may increase the number of officers deployed if it sees the need to do so.
“If we will see na there is a need to increase ‘yong deployment ng ating kapulisan particularly dito sa ating mga transport hubs and terminals we will do so,” she assured the public.
So far, PNP has only recorded 11 incidents related to the long weekend brought by the Holy Week commemorations — nine of which are drowning incidents while two others are vehicular accidents.
Fajardo said they have not monitored any terror threats, although officers on the ground have been instructed to continue safeguarding the public.
“As of April 10 ay nakapagtala na tayo ng 11 incidents, karamihan dyan ay ‘yong drowning incident, nine, at dalawa ‘yong vehicular accident […] kung meron ba tayong namomonitor na banta, so far we have not monitored any credible threat to disrupt or disturb ‘yong ating pag-oobserve ng Holy Week,” she said.
“But nonetheless ‘yong ating kapulisan ay patuloy na nagbabantay para masiguro na ‘yong paglalakbay ng ating mga kababayan ay magiging maayos at matiwasay,” she explained.
A huge number of people are expected to move around during the Holy Week, especially since in the past two years, the public was asked to refrain from visiting provinces to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But after the surge in early January 2022, the country’s infection rate has steadily gone down, prompting national officials to place most areas under Alert Level 1, or the lowest alert classification for the COVID-19 response.
Several transport institutions are expecting volumes similar to pre-pandemic Holy Week commemorations, as more people are allowed to move with lower infection rates.
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