• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 is set to augment police personnel in Bacolod City for the upcoming MassKara Festival this October.
According to Bacolod City Police Director PCol. Joeresty Coronica, the Bacolod police will deploy more than 900 personnel and will receive a boost of an additional 600 cops from the PRO-NIR, and 300 from PRO 6.
Aside from a total of 1,819 police officers to be deployed for the festival, the BCPO is also expecting assistance from other law enforcement agencies.
Coronica stated that relying solely on PRO-NIR would not be sufficient, as Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental will also be celebrating the Buglasan festival at the same time as the MassKara Festival.
The police director said that the deployment will officially begin on October 1.
Other security measures include border control points and a team in case there is a demonstration.
Coronica added that they also recommended a gun ban to Mayor Greg Gasataya, who will be forwarding the request to Camp Crame.
“Whatever the decision of the local chief executive, we will just abide,” Coronica said regarding the gun ban.*
