The Police Regional Office-Negros Island Region (PRO-NIR) continues to conduct monitoring of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) offices to ensure the safety of employees and protect the community from possible violence amid the ongoing investigations on anomalous flood control projects.

“We are still monitoring the DPWH offices and these are part of the regular patrol roving areas,” Lt. Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of PRO-NIR, said in an interview yesterday.

In the highly urbanized city, the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) has been conducting security patrols in the vicinity of the DPWH district engineering office in Barangay Taculing since the Trillion Peso March last September 21.

Malong said that since the “no permit, no rally” was lifted last Sunday, they had to secure all possible areas for protest action.

In a separate interview, BCPO director Colonel Joeresty Coronica said police personnel are closely monitoring the area of the DPWH Bacolod City Engineering Office.

“There are no personnel assigned regularly there, but from time to time, we check the area. We have to learn from experiences not only in the Philippines, but also in other countries. Our instruction is to be always one step ahead of any possibility,” he added.

Last September 9, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon issued a memorandum excusing all the agency’s officials and employees from “wearing the prescribed uniform until further notice” as a way to protect them from harassment or bullying. (PNA)