By PNA
ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) regularly conducts consultative meetings among stakeholders for the security of the PHP11.2-billion Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP) II workers and equipment in Calinog, Iloilo.
Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, IPPO chief, described as productive the recent coordinating conference among Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, Director of Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas); Col. Alberto Desoyo, commander of the 301st Infantry Brigade (IB) of the Philippine Army; and engineers of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
“We were able to identify the concerns that need action,” Tayaba said in an interview on Friday.
One of the main concerns raised and addressed during the meeting was the alignment of troops to secure the mega-dam workers and the equipment.
Tayaba said that a memorandum of understanding between NIA and the security component consisting of the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police was also presented during the meeting.
“The host agency expressed its support for the security forces because this I believe is outside the usual budget that we have and the creation of a probationary company to be the one responsible in securing the project,” Tayaba said.
Although the IPPO chief could not divulge the number of men deployed in the area, he assured that the security component is “very much sufficient to repel any untoward plan by the New People’s Army or any threat groups.”
During the IPPO’s New Year’s Call to Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. on January 22, Tayaba regarded the security of JRMP II workers as one of the challenges for the IPPO in 2019.
Aside from regular consultative meetings, the IPPO also provided police escort and route safety to personnel of the Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., Inc. from the municipality of Calinog to the project site in Barangay Agcalaga.
Preventive foot patrol and target hardening were also conducted by the police force, Tayaba added.
Safeguarding the workers and equipment at the mega-dam will not hinder the IPPO from fulfilling its other duties, such as ensuring a clean and honest 2019 mid-term polls.
“The security at the JRMP will not hinder our other programs because it is not only the IPPO that is securing the project. We also have the Philippine Army, the Iloilo Police Provincial Mobile Force Company, and the local police,” he said.
The JRMP II ground breaking was tentatively set on February 8, Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Han Dong-man said on January 27.
