Cops warn Batch 2010 vs theft, robbery gangs on graduation day

Lest one of the happiest days of their lives turn traumatic, police advised members of Batch 2010 to take precautions against theft and robbery gangs seeking to exploit the occasion. Radio dzBB’s Lito Laparan reported that the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) issued the advice as it deployed added personnel to venues of graduation ceremonies in Metro Manila. NCRPO spokesman Superintendent Rommel Miranda said Director Roberto Rosales, metropolitan police chief, ordered the increased deployment of police personnel and called for closer coordination with school officials on matters of security. Theft and robbery gangs are most likely to lurk around in graduation venues and take valuables when the celebrants and their families are not looking, Miranda added. But he said others may be more violent, and mug students to get their valuables such as cameras, cellular phones, music or video players, and jewelry. Police also advised graduates and their parents to be careful with their belongings and not to show off their valuables especially at the graduation venues. Politics-free graduation rites Last February, the Department of Education reminded both private and public schools to keep graduation rites for Batch 2010 politics-free. [See: DepEd to schools: Keep graduation rites austere, politics-free] At the same time, the DepEd ordered schools to keep their graduation ceremonies solemn yet simple and austere in accordance to DepEd Order No. 13. - RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV