THE Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 will send 100 police officers from the Crisis Response Battalion (CRB) to the Bicol Region, which was devastated by typhoon Rolly on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020.
The deployment of the CRB was in response to the directive of Philippine National Police Chief Police General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan to PRO 7.
According to PRO 7 Director Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, the police officers will be bringing food, water and other relief goods that residents of Albay and neighboring provinces may need.
“I’m preparing now a 100-man team to assist in Bicol. I’m also preparing the gear and equipment they may need for the retrieval or search and rescue operation. I’m still gathering drinking water and food stuff that they will distribute in typhoon-ravaged communities in Region 5,” Ferro said in Cebuano.
He said the 100 police officers from the CRB will be able to use their training in search and rescue to dig out survivors from several hundred houses that were buried by lahar in Albay Province.
They will be expected to stay in the Bicol Region for more than a week. They will be accompanied by a senior police officer.
The date of their departure will depend on the forecast of the state weather bureau Pagasa since another typhoon has entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility. However, they are expected to leave within the week.
Ferro is also asking the public to extend any donations to their office so that they can bring these to Bicol.
“To our brothers and sisters in Central Visayas, if you have extra clothes and blankets please feel free to give them to the PRO 7 headquarters in Camp Sergio Osmeña (in Cebu City). What the affected residents need now aside from water and food are clothes and blankets since most of their houses in Guinubatan (Albay) were buried,” he said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
The PRO 7 has started repacking assistance to be extended in the Bicol Region.
Ferro said the deployment will not hamper the PRO 7’s coronavirus response in Central Visayas.
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav) will provide the logistics requirement of the 100-man team, including food packs and bottled water.
The Opav will provide their transportation after Ferro contacted Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino for the latter’s assistance.
Dino said they will also send relief goods.
“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.
The Opav has coordinated with the Philippine Coast Guard for the immediate transport of the PRO 7 personnel and the relief goods.
According to Dino, four buses will be used by the 100-man team, while two 10-wheeler wing vans will carry the relief goods. (AYB, PR / PJB)