THE Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) has assured the strong presence of its personnel in the different schools in the city during the opening of classes on June 4.
Senior Inspector Dexter Ominga of the operations division explained aside from the 270 newly-installed police officer 1, 80 other police personnel will comprise the number of operatives will be deployed during the opening.
“The 350 strong police personnel will man the different schools in the city aside from facilitating traffic and ensure the safety of the students will be felt," said Ominga.
Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan earlier required the BCPO to show a strong presence of the police during the opening of classes which the chief executive estimated to be around 500,000 daytime population during regular school days.
"Since the full implementation of the K to 12, we are expecting an increase of students on a yearly basis particularly with the different universities and colleges in the city being the educational center of the north," the mayor stated.
On reports of the alleged presence of terror sleeper cells in the city by Philippine Army Chief Lt. General Rolando Bautista, Ominga stated the BCPO's continuous monitoring and intelligence gathering measures to prevent the occurrence of radicalism and terrorism in the city.
"Although this statement was made mentioning Baguio City as one of the areas allegedly having sleeper cells, there have still to be a full confirmation regarding this matter. We do not take this for granted and it is better that we are prepared even before any incident happens instead of being complacent and reactive. The BCPO with the help of the intelligence committee are constantly monitoring and acting in these reports," Ominga stressed.
Sleeper cells are a group of people who inconspicuously remain dormant in a community until activated, by a prearranged signal, to perform acts of espionage, sabotage, and/or terrorism.
Bautista bared this allegation during the book launch of “Marawi and Beyond: The Joint Task Force Marawi Story” held in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
Bautista stated the alleged discovery during the Marawi campaign of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria “sleeper cells” not only in Mindanao, but also in Luzon and Visayas with Luzon having in Baguio, Dagupan, Tarlac, Pangasinan while in the Visayas, they have in Samar, Cebu, and so forth.
Ominga added all the 128 barangays in the city have been advised to conduct profiling of new individuals in their community which is forwarded to the BCPO and local government for documentation.
International students getting their education in Baguio City are also being monitored and profiled for documentary purposes by the different schools which are then submitted to the BCPO for record purposes and documentation.