ILOILO CITY – Security measures have been tightened on Boracay Island with the expected deluge of tourists going to the island-resort during the Holy Week.

Senior Insp. Auxilio Dador, chief of the Boracay Special Tourist Police Office, said more policemen will be deployed on the island this week to ensure security of tourists and to maintain peace and order.

This would include deployment of policemen the Aklan Provincial Police Office and the Regional Mobile Group. Police operatives will also intensify intelligence monitoring especially in crowded areas against pickpockets, petty thieves and peddlers of illegal drugs.

Dador said they expect at least 50,000 tourists to flock to the island because of the long holiday vacation.

Resort owners and the municipal government of Malay where Boracay is located have drafted plans to prepare for the large number of tourists, said Loubelle Cann, president of the Boracay Foundation Inc.

Cann said hotels and resorts on the islands are already fully booked and they expect their guests to arrive starting today.

Dador said they have also tightened their security measures following the arrest of two terror suspects last March 8.

Intelligence agents arrested Muhammad Bani and Al-Midzbar Bunajal in Barangay Manoc-Manoc on the island. The two allegedly have links to the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Jemaah Islamiyah.

But the family of the suspects have denied that the two are involved in any terrorist group and has insisted that they are Imams (Muslim clerics).*NPB

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