The Philippine National Police (PNP) will deploy 192,000 cops nationwide in “places of convergence” for the Christmas holidays.

“Our deployment of police in the whole Philippines is at 85 percent. So more or less 192,000 should be deployed in places of convergence. In all the churches, where the nine-day celebration of Simbang Gabi has started on December 16,” PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. told dzBB on Sunday.

“The police need to be visible, especially their mobile patrol since it would be dark during Simbang Gabi. So the police should be very visible so that anytime the public needs assistance they could be found there,” he added.

According to Azurin, no major incidents have been reported since the start of the Christmas season.

“So far, the situation has been peaceful. Especially here in Metro Manila, the police have not received any major incidents that occurred during the people’s celebration of Simbang Gabi,” he said.

Azurin said the PNP has also established police assistance desks and motorist assistance centers along major highways to provide help to people going back to their province during the holidays. Jaspearl Tan/DMS