The Philippine National Police (PNP) will be deploying around 18,000 policemen to secure transportation hubs, freedom parks and other areas on the days leading to the May 1 Labor Day celebration.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said transportation hubs especially in Metro Manila and other urban areas were secured early in anticipation of another round of exodus of Filipinos who want to take advantage of the long weekend break.
“We will have a long weekend starting today (Saturday, April 29) so we are anticipating that some of our kababayan will take advantage of this for a vacation,” said Fajardo.
“But our focus is on freedom parks and other areas where protest actions and other activities are expected in connection with the Labor Day celebration,” she added.
And if there will be protest actions, Fajardo assured that the police would exercise maximum tolerance.
“We exercise maximum tolerance and our paramount consideration is respect for human rights and freedom of expression and speech.
Fajardo, meanwhile, said there is no need to raise the alert level for the PNP but emphasized that regional directors and other police commanders on the ground were given the authority to raise their respective alert levels depending on the situation in their respective areas of responsibility.