CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – More than 120 personnel will be deployed in different schools here to provide security and maintain the peace and order in the opening of face-to-face classes on Monday, Aug. 22.
The announcement was made by Police Maj. Evan Viñas, spokesperson of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO).
There will also be additional deployment of police forces from the 10 police stations in this city to assist the schools under their areas of responsibility.
The COCPO assured the police visibility in every school here, especially in big schools with huge numbers of enrolled students.
These schools include the Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School, Cagayan de Oro National High School, City Central School, West City Central School, East City Central School, South City Central School, Camaman-an Elementary School and among others.
Viñas added there will be a police assistance desk in the schools.
The COCPO spokesperson is urging the parents and the students to immediately approach the police personnel if they have concerns or if they have observed something wrong within the vicinity of the school.
The city police will also deploy police personnel in different terminals and ports.
Due to the ongoing threat of Covid-19, the COCPO spokesperson also urged the public to strictly adhere to the minimum public health standards to protect themselves and help the government to prevent the resurgence of COVID-19.
“Ang atong panghimangno sa mga ginikanan nga ilang kanunay monitoron ang ilang mga anak aron magpabilin kini luwas ilabi na sa pag-abre sa klase (Our advice to the parents is to always monitor their children to keep them safe especially in the opening of classes),” said Viñas.
The data from Department of Education (DepEd) Northern Mindanao as of Aug. 18 showed that there are 152,333 students (from Kindergarten to Senior high school) who are enrolled for this school year in Cagayan de Oro.
Overall, as of Aug. 18, there are 1,076,935 students enrolled in the entire Northern Mindanao region - 72,215 from kindergarten; 514,437 from elementary; 330,055 from junior high school; and 160,228 from senior high school.
On the other hand, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Region 10, in coordination with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Region 10, had inspected the school service buses from different private schools here as part of their OPLAN Balik Eskwela.
The Kong Hua School and Liceo de Cagayan University are among the schools they visited here and checked the availability of fire extinguisher in the service buses.
The inspection also covered the service bus drivers who were verified whether they are all fully vaccinated, and the worthiness of the service buses to ensure the safe transport of the students to and from the school.
The LTFRB-10 and LTO-10 also continuously inspect the different terminals here and to the other places in the region to ensure the safety of the riding public.
The LTFRB-10 has assured the public that there will be adequate public transportation in the region to cater the expected high volume of passengers in the opening of classes on Monday.