TAGBILARAN CITY – A total of 82 police personnel ---- 67 men and 15 women, of the entire region, seven have undergone and finally completed a six-day training on tourist police. Each graduate received their respective certificate of completion during the ceremonies held at BPSTEA building in this city attended by guest of honor police commissioner Constancia de Guzman, regional director PCSupt Lani-o Nerez, provincial director PSSupt Rodolfo Llorca and other police officers. PSInp Dexter Calacar, the training and course supervisor, presented the 82-strong PNP personnel who have undergone and completed the training with the presence of Mr. Holger Horn, tourist police consultant/trainer.

The graduates of the tourist police training come from Bohol with 20, four of whom are women; Cebu , 21 with one woman; Negros Oriental, 10 with four women; Siquijor, 11 with three women; and Lapu-lapu city, 20 with three women. After the training, Camp Dagohoy planned to deploy the Bohol tourist police graduates, five each, in the municipalities of Danao, Carmen, Sagbayan and Loboc, where tourism increasingly booms. It may be recalled that Bohol was the first to launch this program in training and deployment tourist policemen during the incumbency of Gov. Erico Aumentado to secure tourists and visitors. Panglao tourist island is the first beneficiary of the tourist police. De Guzman pointed out that the training is a transformation to a new beginning from a mere routinary police work. She said that the new task of tourist police “is a tall order and not an easy task” for the new recruits “in whose hands the tourists' fate depend.” Tourist police must ensure that the tourists feel secure of their stay and provide a “certain level of confidence” for them in this tourist region. (RVO)