POLICEMEN and soldiers have been deployed to Bohol to help local security forces maintain peace and order in the province amid reports of looting caused by lack of food and other basic supplies after the onslaught of typhoon “Odette,” Gov. Arthur Yap said yesterday.
Yap said the Central Visayas regional police office sent about 100 policemen to the province but did not say how many additional soldiers were deployed.
The augmentation forces came a day after Yap urged President Duterte to send soldiers and policemen to the province after Department of Social welfare and Development failed to deliver promised relief goods for his constituents.
He said there have been reports of looting in the northern part of Bohol because the people are going hungry, and the PNP and military need additional manpower
“I’d like to thank the Philippine Army because they the deployed additional soldiers here. I would also like the regional PNP, they sent another 100 policemen here,” said Yap.
“We really need to maintain local and peace order and there have been some reports already in two towns in the north, I would just not name them. There have been isolated cases of looting. If we cannot really give this assistance and aid at this point in time, then more untoward incidents will follow,” he said.
Bicol provincial police chief Col. Osmundo Salibo said 120 men policemen from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 7 stationed in Cebu were sent and they arrived in Bohol on Tuesday.
Salibo also said there is only one confirmed case looting in the province, which he said occurred two days after Odette’s landfall on Thursday last week. He said the suspects looted a grocery store and were later arrested by responding policemen.
“There is only one confirmed cased based on the report that reached me, though the governor said there are other cases,” said Salibo while acknowledging that reports are delayed due to downed communication lines.
“But we assure the people that the police is there, they are already there since yesterday (Tuesday). I know they will address that, if there will be report of looting,” the official also said.
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said has actually been an increase of military personnel in the province because of ongoing relief operations.
Arevalo said Brig. Gen. Leonardo Peña, commander of the Army 302nd Brigade based in Negros Oriental, and his staff moved to Bohol a few days ago to help the province.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the PNP deployed some 14,200 policemen to areas affected by Odette which hit at least five regions in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The policemen will help maintain peace and order an in the rescue, recovery and relief operations, he said on Tuesday night during President Duterte’s regular public address.
Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said while the reported looting activity is “not massive,” the presence of more policemen is expected to help deter looting and other crimes in the typhoon-stricken areas. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
