PNP: Holy Week 2018 ‘generally peaceful,’ only 48 incidents recorded

The observance of the Holy Week in the country was “generally peaceful” amid some untoward incidents, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Sunday.

Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, PNP spokesperson, said that the high number of policemen deployed during the Holy Week helped in ensuring the safety of the public.

“Dahil sa laki ng number ng personnel na na-deploy natin, eh nasiguro natin na lahat ng naging problema ng ating kababayan ay naasikaso ng pulis,” Bulalacao said in an interview with Radyo Inquirer 990 AM.

(Due to the large number of personnel we deployed, we ensured that all problems of the public were attended to by the police.)

According to Bulalacao, 33,385 police personnel were deployed to man the 5,218 police assistance centers in the Metro.

Despite this, the PNP has received a total 48 untoward incidents that happened in the country.

“Forty-eight incidents, karamihan dito ay drowning incidents (most of these were drowning incidents),” he said.

Bulalacao could enumerate, however, only 45 incidents including 34 drowning incidents, seven vehicular accidents, two theft incidents, and two physical injuries.

He then noted that the number of reported incidents this year was due to the preparation of the PNP and other government agencies for the Holy Week.

“Ganito lang kababa yung mga incidents na narecord natin dahil siguro sa naging, ‘yung naging preparado ‘yung ating mga security forces, ‘yung other government agencies involved, kaya naminimize ‘yung mga ganitong insidente,” Bulalacao said.

(We recorded a low number of incidents because our security forces and other government agencies were prepared, so we were able to minimize these kinds of incidents.)

“Hindi ko lang masabi kung ilang porsyento but definitely mas mababa ngayon (I can’t really say the percentage but it’s definitely lower this year),” he said when asked for a comparison from the data last year. /je