Batangas police director asks for more men to secure lockdown areas

January 23, 2020

The director of Batangas Police Provincial Office on Thursday said they requested for additional forces to secure lockdown areas after they were ordered to leave areas within 14-kilometer danger zone from Taal Volcano.

In a TV interview, Police Colonel Quilates said the cops who were pulled out from the lockdown areas will be deployed in strategic areas outside the towns  within the 14-kilometer danger zone.

“We will be relocating them in safer areas outside the 14-kilometer radius. They have designated areas and we already plot in the map the strategic areas just outside the lockdown areas so that the (residents) will not enter,” he said.

Quilates said they placed around 29 control points outside the areas near the volcano and for those who will still try to sneak in through secret passages and roads, he said they requested Calabarzon police for augmentation forces.

“We are requesting augmentation force from our regional office to check if we are lacking (of police force) and to make sure we have additional augmentation forces if even there are other roads,” he said.

Earlier, another stand-off happened between the residents and police when they tried to conduct a dry run  along Lemery-Taal bypass.

According to Quilates the dry run was conducted by the provincial government after they found that the highway is part of the 14-kilometer radius.

“If that road is open, it is easy to access the towns of Agoncillo, Lemery including San Nicolas… so we are looking for solution to address that… we already placed control points there so that residents will not just go inside (lockdown areas),” he said.

He said the highway was immediately opened after the dry run and it will  depend on the provincial government office’s instruction whether they will close the road.

To prevent the incident from happening again, the provincial director said they will be making public announcements and closely coordinate with the residents and local government.

Quilates again appealed to affected residents to cooperate and do not try to enter the lockdown areas.

“Hopefully everyone will cooperate in order not to aggravate the crisis,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS