THE Municipal Police Office of Atok in Benguet is one with the municipality in promoting its tourist destination to local and foreign visitors.
Atok MPS head Chief Inspector Cesar Mallong explained the municipality which has a population of 19,642, is progressing to be a major tourist destination due to its accessibility to the public.
“Its promotion of the Sakura park located in Barangay Paoay is now being frequently visited by tourists," said Mallong
40 Japanese sakura trees which have been planted in a park in Paoay have attracted local and foreign tourists which have reacted Atok MPS's Tourism Police program.
"Our coordination with the local government have also strengthened the community involvement and engagement that allows the community to be a tourism oriented community, aside from being our force multipliers in maintaining peace and order in the municipality," said Mallong.
Meanwhile, Atok's police hailed the support of the community in the area of information about crimes within the municipality.
"With 28 police personnel and four none uniformed police, we continue to rely on the community to inform us on any activities in the eight barangays of Atok through the PNP Text 2920 which is also a feedback mechanism we use to gauge our reaction time," added Mallong.
Atok has a police to person ratio of 1:700 but it continues to rely on its barangay counterparts as force multipliers.
"We continue to strengthen our pulong-pulong sa barangay which is an avenue for us to gather information from the grassroots level allowing us to develop program strategies in managing crimes in the municipality," Mallong pointed out.