CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte, Philippines – The Philippine National Police in Eastern Visayas will deploy over 4,000 policemen in the region Friday for the New Year’s celebrations, according to PNP-8 Regional Director, Chief Supt. Arnold Revilla.

Revilla told reporters in an interview that for said festivities, his office will be deploying that much police all over Region 8 to maintain peace and order and manage traffic in cities and towns in coordination with barangay officials and tanods, the military, other security forces and other concerned groups in the localities.

He said most of the policemen to be deployed will come from the provincial and municipal police stations considering that the provincial directors and city and municipal police stations’ chiefs of police are the ones he has directed to determine the police officers to do the task of maintaining the peace in their respective areas.

Revilla said the entire police force in Eastern Visayas is on heightened alert status and ready to respond to any eventuality that may arise during the New Year’s eve celebrations.

Still, he said, those under his jurisdiction are “confident that said celebrations will be peaceful and orderly and I don’t think that any untoward incidents will happen” when people in the region bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new one. (Restituto A.Cayubit)

OPLAN IWAS PAPUTOK INTENSIFIED

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines (PIA) – Separate efforts of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO) has yielded boxes of undocumented and illegal firecrackers as part of the Oplan Iwas Paputok campaign.

In operations conducted on the same day, the NOPPO was able to confiscate 21 boxes of assorted firecrackers and pyrotechnics and a box of gun replicas while the BCPO confiscated 60 boxes of piccolo and poppop firecrackers from a store in Bacolod City, Monday.

Bacolod Police Station 1 Commander PCInsp. Luisito Acebuche said the store owner will be charged for violating Republic Act 7183 or the Firecrackers Code of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, NOPPO Operations and Plans Branch led by Police Inspector Vanessa Gayle Sonoy said the inspection and operation they conducted was also in compliance with the Philippine National Police Letter of Instruction 12/64.

The Department of Health in 2009 listed the top 5 injury-causing firecrackers and topping the list is the piccolo, accounting for 30 percent of injury-causing firecrackers.The other four on the list are the kwitis, luces, 5 star, and pla-pla.

Injury cases are also on the rise with 733 in 2008 and 1,036 recorded injuries in 2009. As of last weekend, four cases related to firecracker blasts were recorded at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.

W. VISAYAS HOSPITALS READY

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo, Philippines (PIA) – Government hospitals and health facilities in Western Visayas are prepared for any eventuality during the New Year’s celebration.

This was disclosed by Dr. Vicky Mancilla of the Department of Health (DoH) who discouraged, over a local broadcast show, the public from using firecrackers to prevent injuries and even deaths while celebrating the New Year.

Dr. Mancilla said government’s hospitals’ preparedness should not encourage anyone to be careless with pyrotechnics, although she underlined that they are prepared at all times to save lives, if need be.

The DoH this year focuses its Iwas Paputok campaign on children. Mancilla said there will be six sentinel sites monitoring firecracker injuries and stray bullet wounds during the holiday season.

These sites are the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in Antique province; Dr. Rafael S. Tumbokon Memorial Hospital in Aklan province; Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital in Capiz province; and the Guimaras Provincial Hospital.