The police's elite Special Action Force (SAF) will be deployed in urban areas and other barangays with high crime rate in anticipation of the increase in criminal activities as the "ber months" starts.
Police Gen, Rodolfo Azurin Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the SAF deployment is part of the crime prevention measures, especially street crimes that include theft and robbery that usually spike up on the days leading to the Christmas.
"My order is to ensure police presence not only in the National Capital Region but also in other parts of the country. So we will be deploying our mobile forces, even to the point of deploying our SAF," said Azurin.
So far, Azurin said they are still conducting assessment and monitoring as to which areas in Metro Manila and other parts of the country need more police visibility.
He said police commanders have already been instructed to come up with the data on which areas, what time and what particular crime usually occur down to the barangay level.
""We need to know the crime-prone areas so that we would know where to deploy our personnel," said Azurin.
"This is also necessary to know the type of intervention that we would implement down to the barangay level," he added.