THE Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav) is providing the logistics requirement of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas for its 100-man team bound for Bicol to help in response efforts after Typhoon Rolly.
Opav will provide transportation for the personnel of PRO-Central Visayas who will be leaving for Bicol within the week.
Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino said the PRO regional director, Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, contacted him to ask for assistance on the transportation of his men.
Dino added that Opav will provide food packs and bottled water to the team of PRO-Central Visayas, including relief goods to be extended to the affected families in Bicol.
“We should extend assistance to the hundreds of thousands of fellow Filipinos who have been affected by Typhoon Rolly,” he said.
Of the more than 390,000 individuals who are displaced, around 340,000 are at the evacuation centers.
Opav has coordinated with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for the immediate transport of the PRO personnel and the relief goods.
Dino said four buses will be used by PRO-Central Visayas's Crisis Response Battalion, while two 10-wheeler wing vans will carry the relief goods.
Ferro said they are now preparing all the needed equipment that will be used for the possible search and retrieval operations in Bicol.
The deployment of the Crisis Response Battalion was in response to the directive of Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Police General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan to PRO-Central Visayas.
At present, PRO-Central Visayas has started repacking assistance to be extended to Bicol.
Ferro is also asking the public to extend any possible donations to their office so that they can bring it to Bicol.
Essentials such as water, food, clothes, and blankets are the immediate donations the PRO is asking for the public to donate.
Ferro also made sure that the said personnel who will extend help in Bicol are well trained for possible search and rescue operations.
He said the deployment will not hamper the Covid-19 response in Central Visayas. (PR)