Presence of Salaam cops in SEA Games hailed

December 13, 2019

The deployment of Salaam police during the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games was very much appreciated by Muslim countries, according to the acting chief of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) on Friday.

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas in a press briefing said this was one of the best practices they had done during the event.

“It was very appreciated by different delegates, particularly Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia, that they saw Muslim officers,” Sinas said.

“They were happy that at least Muslim officers are being deployed in the area, visibly. That’s one of our good deployments,” he added.

The deployment of Salaam police was done after the Muslim community observed the lack of Muslim police during the SEA Games with most of the delegates and athletes came from Muslim countries.

A total of 240 Muslim police officers were deployed in the hotels and sports venues.

Sinas earlier said this was done to address the culture of sensitivity.

“In our future activities, where Muslim countries are involved, this is what we need in order to practice cultural sensitivity,” he said.

Sinas said Muslim visitors felt at ease when they saw other Muslims in the area.

The acting NCRPO chief also lauded his men for the successful security coverage of SEA Games and challenged all Metro Manila personnel to further maintain and strengthen the operational readiness.

He honored all men and women of the NCRPO represented by 11,752 representatives from different districts, stations and offices along with NCRPO’s reactionary unit such as the Regional Mobile Force contingents.

“Let us not rest on our successes. Let us remain vigilant against all forms of disturbance in security. Let us always be visible, accessible and ready to help,” Sinas said.

“We worked as one and so, we won as one; as such what we have done on SEA GAMES should reflect the standard of what we should be doing every day,” he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS