PNP regional chiefs in crisis-hit regions given discretion to raise alert level

PNP Director General Alan Purisima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine National Police authorized Regional Directors in affected regions Wednesday to raise their respective alert conditions to ensure the availability of resources and personnel for disaster rescue operations in typhoon-stricken areas.

PNP chief, Director General Alan Purisima made the statement as additional troops and equipment were dispatched to crisis-hit Central Luzon and Calabarzon as rescue and relief work went into full swing Wednesday.

In Central Luzon, 32,850 persons were packed in 147 evacuation centers in 53 cities and municipalities, Purisima said.

Some 444 police rescuers were re-deployed to 492-flooded villages in nine affected provinces and city in Central Luzon.

In Metro Manila, the NCRPO set up Police Assistance Desks in 208 evacuation centers in different cities to attend to problems of evacuees.

Purisima said 1,015 police personnel, four troop carrier trucks and two inflatable boats combed the flood stricken areas in Metro Manila, particularly in communities along the banks of the Marikina River, and in flood-prone areas in CAMANAVA, Taguig, Muntinlupa, Parañaque and Las Piñas City.

Over 180 persons were rescued, he said.

PNP officials noted that some police personnel and their families were themselves victims of the disaster, some of whom were left stranded inside their submerged homes.

“Despite this, however, our police personnel had to perform their duty and take part in disaster rescue and relief operations,” Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore C. Sindac, chief of the PNP Public Information Office, said.