PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. yesterday said the police force has not monitored any threat to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Marcos Jr. at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City on July 24.
“As of now we have not received reports about it (threat) but as we have been saying, expect for the worst and hope for the best,” Acorda told a radio interview.
Acorda said the PNP will continue to gather intelligence information in connection with the SONA, Marcos’ second since he assumed the presidency in June last year.
“We have (a security) template that we follow during SONA and definitely we are prepared for this, depending on the intelligence reports that will come in, if there are adjustments to be done,” said Acorda.
Acorda said the PNP has just created the Task Force SONA to secure the event. The task force, he said, is headed by National Capital Region Police Director Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo.
“The (PNP) national headquarters is there monitoring, ready to give support to the NCRPO to make sure that we will have a peaceful conduct of (the) SONA,” he said.
Acorda said the PNP will observe maximum tolerance in dealing with rallyists.
“We will see to it that they exercise their rights. We will let them air whatever issues they want to air. But we will make sure that this does not affect the rights of others,” he said.
Last week, the NCRPO said at least 22,081 personnel from the PNP and other government agencies have been initially tapped to secure the SONA.
The number is nearly similar to the personnel who were deployed for the President’s first SONA last year, which turned out to be generally peaceful.
