The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) on Monday said it would deploy personnel in plainclothes to maintain peace and order this Christmas season.
Both undercover personnel and uniformed officers will rove around shopping malls and other places of convergence, NCRPO Deputy Regional Director for Operations Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky said.
Street crimes typically increase during the holiday season, he noted.
“We have so-called secret officers. They are coordinating with malls, they are strategically stationed around them… Of course, police will also enjoy Christmas. But we manage in such a way that our areas where police should be seen would not be vacant,” the NCRPO’s number 3 official said.
“We are not letting our guards down. Of course, our policemen will also enjoy Christmas. But we manage in such a way that the areas our police should be seen won’t be vacant. We partitioned their schedules… so they can be given days to spend with their families,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday said it will beef up efforts to help the international police community in its campaign against fugitive foreigners who are hiding in the country.
“The Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization), more than ever, has been forward-looking at prospects of better cooperation among countries, and the PNP is proud of our role in this international alliance against crime, to which we have assisted foreign counterparts in tracking down wanted fugitives and providing active technical support to international efforts,” said PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. in a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Azurin made the commitment following his participation in the recent 17th Annual Conference of Heads of National Central Bureaus of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-Interpol) held in Lyon, France.
He said the conference is among the regular Interpol meetings for member countries to touch base with the global network of police agencies with common interests in combatting transnational and domestic crimes.
Several foreign fugitives were already arrested in the country through coordination with the Interpol member countries.
Azurin said that during his visit to France, he had the opportunity to talk with Philippine Ambassador to France Junever Mahilum-West about certain concerns of the local Filipino community on some pressing domestic issues in the country.
France is among eight countries in the world where the Philippines maintains an Office of the Police Attache, as part of the official diplomatic mission.
Azurin said the Philippines is never far behind in addressing current criminal activity involving transnational syndicates.
He also stressed the major role of the PNP Women and Children Protection Center in a recent international law enforcement operation in the Philippines, United States, Norway, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany.
He said this is a testament to the responsiveness of the country as an active member of a global alliance of police agencies that share common interests in combatting transnational crime involving the online sexual exploitation of children.
Azurin added that the PNP, through the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG), was also instrumental in breaking the backbone of syndicated criminal activities engaged in online financial fraud from local and offshore boiler room operations.
At the Interpol General Assembly last October, Azurin who led the Philippine delegation presented a paper highlighting the recent developments in the PNP campaign against illegal drugs, cybercrime, intellectual property rights violations, transnational crime, and Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children.
