Senior Inspector Maria Teresita Gaspan, spokesperson of DCPO, said during the weekly AFP-PNP Southern Mindanao Press Corps press conference on Wednesday at The Royal Mandaya Hotel, that their security plan will be implemented starting November 23, 2018 until January 2, 2019.
Gaspan said that there will be police officers assigned in all activities of Pasko Fiesta, this is also in coordination with the Task Force (TF) Davao and other security counterparts that would help secure Davao City.
“There will be incident command post system (ICS) in each area where the activity is being held in order to have one place for the security and emergency services,” she said.
She said that San Pedro street will have ICS, since this area is the venue of the majority of the Pasko Fiesta events and needs big security coverage.
She added that the deployment of troops per event in the duration of the Pasko Fiesta will differ depending on the events.
“Usually one team will be deployed per event but there are some events that would only require minimal security personnel because it is not a big event so the deployment will vary,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the duration of Simbang Gabi onward until Christmas and New Year all police officers of DCPO will be on duty.
“We are not allowed to have a leave from December 7 onwards, so we will be in full alert,” she said
“One team will be deployed in each church in the city and there will also be another team from other security counterpart such as TF Davao,” she added.
One team is composed of seven police officers.
She also said that they will rescue those minors loitering outside the church during the Simbang Gabi in order to prevent riots and other conflicts.
“This cannot be avoided, there are really teens or minors that will only loiter outside the church or will stay in stores while waiting for another group of teens, (this happens) especially in the areas of San Antonio De Padua Parish, Santa Ana Parish Church, Our Lady of Fatima Parish, San Pedro Cathedral” she said.
She said what they normally do is they will rescue these minors and turn them over to the Barangay they belong.
