PNP focuses on tourism during 25th founding anniversary

• Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=850327
• Monday, January 25, 2016

(PNA), LAP/CD

CAMP ALAGAR, Cagayan De Oro City, Jan. 25 (PNA) -– The regional police command here focused on tourism during the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Monday.

Police Supt. Gervacio Balmaceda, the police regional spokesperson, said that the officials from the tourism agencies were the invited guest of honors during the annual celebration.

Balmaceda said that the police have shifted to tourism and security as the major focus this year in line with the thrust of the national government in the promotion of the tourism industry in the region.

Catalino Chan III, regional director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Northern Mindanao, said that the DOT would continue to train the police on Tourism Oriented Police for Community Order and Protection (TOP-COP).

He said that TOP-COP is a nationwide program of the DOT in collaboration with the PNP aimed at providing a safe and secure environment for domestic and foreign tourists.

The government would establish a 24-hour tourist office in places where there is “high movement of tourists” that need an enhanced police visibility that would provide security contingencies, Chan said.

Balmaceda said that the day-long founding day celebration was capped with the wreath-laying at the entrance gate of the regional police command here in honor of 1Lt. Vicente Alagar after whom the police regional camp was named.

Alagar died in a display of impeccable courage and gallantry in defense of the then makeshift military camp while fighting the insurgents in 1932, Balmaceda said.

He said that Alagar was represented by daughter Henrietta Alagar Pascual and granddaughter Anna Felicia Alagar during the wreath-laying ceremony.