No Christmas break for police

PNP Director General Alan Purisima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Police officers this Yuletide Season will have to spend Media Noche and Noche Buena while on duty.

“The PNP will not go on break,” PNP Director General Alan Purisima announced in a memorandum Wednesday. “The old practice of going on a Christmas and New Year break for this year will no longer be observed.”

Purisima ordered the police forces to remain visible on Christmas and New Year as part of the agency’s “Yuletide 2013” drive.

PNP spokesman Reuben Theodore Sindac said Wednesday in a press briefing that unlike in the previous years, policemen in all areas will render duties “as if it is an ordinary working day of law enforcement.”

This move is in anticipation of the increase in petty street crimes especially in crowded places such as malls, bus terminals and churches during holidays, Sindac said.

“Even before the ‘ber’ months, our previous records showed an increase in petty crimes especially in malls and during ‘Simbang Gabi’ (Mass at Dawn). But as Christmas comes nearer, crime rates taper off,” he added.

As for police officers deployed to typhoon-hit provinces of Tacloban and Samar, Sindac said the PNP and the National Capital Region Police Office are studying how to fully restore peace and order in the calamity-stricken areas.

After Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) affected more than 6,000 policemen in Eastern Visayas, the PNP sent augmentation forces in Tacloban and Samar. They will be replaced by a new batch of policemen after 15 days.