CAMP OSCAR FLORENDO, San Fernando City, La Union — Police authorities in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions ordered their respective operating units in Ilocos Sur and Benguet to adopt tighter security measures along the Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road to ensure the safety of motorists, especially vegetable truckers and traders, from being victimized by robbers.

Chief Supt. Ramon V. Gatan, director of the Police Regional Office 1 (PRO 1), said he had already directed the Ilocos Sur provincial police office to strengthen their police visibility as well as their foot and mobile patrols, especially at night, in order to prevent unscrupulous individuals from victimizing innocent individuals.

Gatan issued the marching orders upon receiving the complaints of several vegetable traders from Benguet who were robbed by six still unidentified bonnet-wearing armed men who took from them their cash and personal belongings, particularly at the sharp curve of Sitio Camay- Gitlangan in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur last week.

For his part, Chief Supt. Orlando Pestano, PRO-COR regional director, also ordered police operating units in Benguet to work double time in patrolling the stretch of the 43-kilometer Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road, especially within the jurisdiction of Benguet, so that motorists will feel secured when using the road line as an alternate route to the lowlands.

He pointed out there is a possibility that the robbers who victimized several vegetable traders and truckers in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur might be from Benguet since they were able to escape through the Baguyos River leading towards Mankayan town.

Vegetable farmers, traders and truckers from the northern towns of Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao are using the Abatan-Mankayan-Cervantes road as an alternate route to bring their produce to the lowlands and the La Trinidad vegetable trading post since the Halsema Highway, the main artery to the Cordillera hinterlands, has only been opened for light vehicular traffic.