Deputy City Director for Operations of the Davao City Police Office Angel B. Sumagaysay (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY— Law enforcers here will institute tighter security measures for the upcoming Kadayawan festival as a police official confirmed the attendance of President Rodrigo Duterte to the annual celebration.
Police Superintendent Angel B. Sumagaysay, deputy city director for operations of Davao City Police Office (DCPO) said that they are now finalizing the security plan for the 31st Kadayawan sa Dabaw on August 15-21.
“We have coordinating conferences with other law enforcement units such as Task Force (TF) Davao, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and others,” he said.
Sumagaysay said that the preparation will be similar to Duterte’s thanksgiving party dubbed “One Love, One Nation” held at the Crocodile Park last June 4.
He said that they would be deploying 1,039 police officers.
“We will also have force multipliers as they are a huge help to DCPO because they will be the one to act as human barricade if the area will be too crowded,” he said.
Sumagaysay said that the ground commander for the event is the City Director Michael John Dubria, the ground commander for security is TF-Davao commander Col.Henry A. Robinson, Jr., and the overall commander is Police Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, head director of Police Regional Office (PRO) XI.
As part of the security of the President, Sumagaysay said that the Presidential Security Group (PSG) would also take part to the security plan.
“Mag-adjust ra mi sa security preparation sa PSG, mag-align among security plan ug sa PSG na security plan (We will just adjust our security preparation to the PSG, we will align our security plan with them),” he said
He said that it is still prohibited to wear caps, using of aerial drone devices and bringing backpacks and firearms.
Sumagaysay said visitors could use police stations as “depository areas” for their bags during the Kadayawan event.(davaotoday.com)
