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ILOILO City – The Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) kicked off its security preparations for the 2018 edition of the Dinagyang Festival with an exercise simulating a bomb attack.
The exercise was conducted yesterday at Plaza Libertad where participating Dinagyang ati-ati and Kasadyahan contesting tribes would be assembling for a parade prior to their performances on Jan. 27 and 28, 2018.
The Bureau of Fire Protection and the Iloilo City Emergency Response medical team joined the police in the exercise yesterday afternoon.
Policemen rescued “bomb victims” and/or “detonated” explosives.
The annual Dinagyang Festival is a constant security challenge. It attracts thousands of tourists.
For the 2017 Dinagyang, telecommunication companies suspended mobile phone services as a preemptive measure against bomb attacks.
Terrorists could be detonating improvised explosive devices using cell phone signals, according to Senior Inspector Shella Mae Sangirnes, spokesperson of the city police.
Yesterday’s bomb attack simulation exercise was the second in a week. Just this Nov. 9 ICPO conducted one at the public plaza of Molo district.
Participants, especially ICPO’s Explosive and Ordnance Division, demonstrated how they would handle the situation, said Superintendent Efren Lozada, deputy director for administration of the ICPO.
On Nov. 7, an unattended bag at the Freedom Grandstand caused people to panic due to fears it contained explosives.
The Freedom Grandstand is one of the performance areas of Dinagyang tribes.
“We need to conduct exercises to calibrate our policemen’s readiness in handling this kind of situation,” said Lozada.
In last week’s simulation exercise, Lozada noted one area where policemen needed to improve their response – crowd control management.
The police must control the crowd; they must not be allowed to get close to the area where the bomb is, Lozada stressed.
A total of 3,606 police officers were deployed across the city in the January 2017 Dinagyang. It was the National Telecommunications Commission that ordered the telecommunication companies to temporarily shut down their mobile phone services upon the request of the ICPO and Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation, Inc., organizer of the festivity./PN
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