DAGUPAN CITY -- Oplan Sumvac (Summer Vacation) will kick off in Pangasinan next month and will end in May to provide security and ensure the safety of vacationers and tourists coming to Pangasinan during the summer vacation.
Superintendent Ferdinand de Asis, public information officer of the Pangasinan Police Office, said that Oplan Semana Santa, launched during the Holy Week, is just part of Oplan Sumvac, which is bigger in scope and will include security preparations in beaches and other places of interests in Pangasinan, including fiestas such as the "Pistay Dayat" and the Bangus Festival.
"Initially, we have asked police stations where are tourist destinations to prepare their own security plans to secure tourists visiting their areas," he said during a forum Thursday.
He said that during the Holy Week, the Pangasinan police will put in place "Oplan Semana Santa" as thousands of people, including students, are going back to their province and will join the crowd going to churches and the beaches.
Noting that the newly proclaimed Papal Basilica of Manaoag will be again flocked to by devotees during the Holy Week, the Pangasinan police are training additional tourist police (TopCops) to boost the security of devotees.
The TopCops of Manaoag are riding on bicycles, as they patrol the streets of the town, including inside the basilica premises.
It is during the Holy Week when the devotees flocking the basilica will swell up to close to a million.
The police will also set up motorists and police assistance centers along the highways leading to Pangasinan in order to assist motorists in distress during the rush to the province during the Holy Week.
De Asis said that Senior Superintendent Reynadlo Biay, officer-in-charge of the Pangasinan Police, will most likely ask for augmentation forces to boost policemen providing security in the coming Pistay Dayat and Dagupan Bangus Festivakl, both certified crowd drawers.
The augmentation troops will likely come from the Pangasinan Mobile Public Safety Company based in Tayug and Alaminos City, a company from the Special Action Force deployed in the eastern and western boundaries of the province, a company of policemen based at San Roque Dan and from the Regional Public Safety Battalion in San Fermnando, La Union. (PNA)