PNP deploys over 600 police to curb looting in Tacloban

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has deployed over 600 cops in Tacloban City in Leyte to maintain peace and order amid reports of looting in the area after super typhoon Yolanda hit the island Friday.

 

PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac told GMA News Online in a phone interview on Wednesday that 689 police personnel have been sent to Tacloban City, one of the most severely hit cities where 80 percent of structures were believed to be destroyed while bodies lay dead on the streets.
 

Sindac said the ground commanders may send personnel from Tacloban City to other affected areas in Leyte to curb lawlessness.
 

Meanwhile, at least 85 personnel would be sent to Ormoc, Leyte, 60 in Eastern Samar, and 58 in Capiz, Sindac said.

Those who were not deployed to Ormoc or Tacloban were to be stationed in the north and south sides of the San Juanico Bridge to provide security for relief efforts in that area, a PNP representative said in a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has deployed one battalion in the Yolanda affected areas. Other forces are on standby and are ready to be deployed, the AFP Command Center's Col. Rocky Biñag said in the same press briefing.
 

Despite reports of looting, the latest at a government rice warehouse in Alangalang, Leyte where eight were killed in a stampede, Sindac said the security situation in Yolanda-hit areas is controlled.

 

"It's under control... Medyo we're getting a sense of environmental stability and normalcy," Sindac said in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, asked to confirm a report that almost all of Eastern Visayas police's 983 personnel have gone missing after Yolanda, Sindac said he could "neither confirm nor deny."

 

The Philippine Star reported Wednesday that only 34 of the 983 reported for duty on Sunday.

 

"We cannot confirm nor deny, but we are accounting for our personnel," Sindac said.

Sindac added they have not yet received information on police personnel who were injured or killed due to Yolanda.

 

Meanwhile, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said two Air Forces personnel were killed while three more were missing.
 

Also, Zagala said 22 Navy and Air Force personnel were injured, including Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Fermin Carangan, who was swept to sea in Tacloban and ended up at the opposite shore in Basey, Samar at the height of the storm. 

 

President Benigno Aquino III said the death toll from the world's strongest typhoon to hit land may reach 2,000 or 2,500, lower than the 10,000 previously estimated, Reuters reported.

 

The official death toll stood at 1,798 on Tuesday, while 2,582 were injured, 82 still missing, and 6,937,229 people were affected by Yolanda, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in the Reuters report.

 

Yolanda, which brought monster winds and tsunami-like waves last Friday, is officially the fourth strongest tropical cyclone in world history in terms of overall strength. —With a report from Kim Luces/KG, GMA News