14,000 policemen for Duterte’s address: Albayalde

July 18, 2019

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is set to deploy thousands of its personnel during the fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte at the Batasang Pambansa on Monday.

Police General Oscar Albayalde, PNP chief, said the 14,000 policemen will be deployed in Metro Manila, especially in Quezon City where the event willl be held.

"In QCPD ( Quezon City Police District) alone especially in the (venue) area around 8,500 uniformed personnel will be deployed near the Batasan," he said.

Albayalde said there were no threats monitored as of Thursday but he added that the PNP will be stricter in implementing security protocols during the event.

"We will be stricter when it comes to security protocols that is why we assigned additional personnel, both uniformed and non-uniformed. We will be fielding non-uniformed or intelligence monitoring teams within the rally site not only for the protection of the community but also for the protection of the protesters themselves...," said Albayalde.

1Lt. Arianne Bichara, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Joint Task Force NCR spokesperson, did not mention their deployment for SONA. But she said the joint task force will field enough men the security operation of PNP and the Presidential Security Group (PSG).

"The troops that we will deploy are enough to support the NCRPO, PSG and other law enforcement agencies for the SONA because we also have our reserves that will be included in our deployment," she said. Robina Asido/DMS