By VENUS MAY H. SARMIENTO
PIA Dagupan Infocenter

DAGUPAN policemen will be on full alert tomorrow as the province welcomes the new year.

Supt. Dionicio Borromeo, city police chief, said the force had been on full alert since December 26, the day before the city fiesta.

He said he has issued orders to his men to be deployed in key areas tomorrow, December 31, to render all kinds of police assistance to the public from pedestrian assistance to traffic monitoring and directing to routine patrols in the thoroughfares.

Arrangements have likewise been made, Borromeo added, for the city police to work closely with representatives of the Department of Health in anticipation of a a surge of firecracker explosion victims.

Borromeo also promised to have capable police officers on standby at the station to provide members of the local media on immediate information about the victims of accidents from fire cracker explosions and other incidents.

The police chief admitted that the city police has made monitoring of the sale of firecrackers in public places as well as the actual procurement of illegal firecrackers from unregistered manufacturers part of their operations the past weeks.

]“Anyone caught engaging in the buy and sell of (banned firecracker) without the necessary permit will be arrested,” Borromeo said.

He particularly noted that in Dagupan City, only one manufacturer has applied for and been given a permit to produce and sell the items.

Borromeo’s statement appears to rule all other well-known manufacturers of firecrackers in areas like barangays Bacayao, Pogo Grande and Lasip and Pogo as deserving of arrest if found so engaged in the act.

Through the years however, observers point out that open buying and selling of firecrackers occur in roads and side streets in these areas towards New Years Eve and police are reduced to patrolling and cruising around without actually confiscating the items.