Special Investigation Task Group spokesperson Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare. (Screengrab from PRO-7 video)
CEBU CITY – The Police Regional Office (PRO) has placed all elected and appointed officials in Central Visayas under threat assessment following the gruesome murder of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo, a police official on Monday said.
Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, PRO-7 spokesperson, said a threat assessment for the politicians has long been included in the operational plans of the Intelligence Division, but regional police director Brig. Gen. Jerry Bearis ordered to step up the evaluation amid the surge of violent attacks against local officials.
“Prior to the incident, we have a regular threat assessment for governors, mayors, and other high officials. But because of the murder of Gov. Degamo, we are now recalibrating our approaches here, especially in the area of securing our officials in Central Visayas,” Pelare told the Philippine News Agency in a phone interview.
Part of the approach, he said, is to put police officers assigned to secure elected officials here in a capability review to ensure they can handle high threats from criminal elements.
Cops deployed to guard politicians will also undergo amplified protective detail or VIP security training and exercises.
These measures, he said, are in place while the policy on providing security details to politicians limits only to two.
Pelare also said that while the governor was well-secured by the protective personnel assigned to him, it could not be discounted that they were overwhelmed by the well-planned execution of the attack.
Meanwhile, Pelare said PRO-7 will check politicians in Negros Oriental who are suspected of maintaining private armed groups (PAG) following the incident that took the lives of Degamo and eight others when armed men barged into his residential compound in Barangay San Isidro in Pamplona town.
He said that while the regional police did not receive any report of any private armed groups, the PNP must review this again.
“We have not received a report of any private armed groups, but after the incident, we see the need to check, yung mga nagyayari ngayon ay meron ba’ng private armed group dyan sa (what has been happening now calls the need to see if there is a private armed group there in) Negros Oriental,” he added.
Meanwhile, Cebu City police chief Col. Ireneo Dalogdog ordered the local authorities to ensure the security of Mayor Michael Rama.
Dalogdog directed station chiefs, the special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team, and the Cebu Mobile Force Company to secure Rama’s activities in different barangays.
Relatedly, Lapu-Lapu City police chief Col. Elmer Lim said the local police on Monday held a simulation exercise to review their capabilities in responding to a shooting incident involving mass casualties. (PNA)
