Nearly 1,500 police personnel would secure Chinese New Year celebrations, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Tuesday.

PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said the deployment of these police officers will be in effect until Feb. 15.

“I am giving the directive to our police personnel to provide the appropriate security measures para hindi naman magkagulo (to prevent any untoward incident) and this will be done specifically in some areas where there a lot of Chinese, especially in Chinatown kailangan mabantayan yan (to provide security) and we have deployed a total of 1,457 on separate dates and several locations,” Acorda told reporters.

The figure includes 92 commissioned officers and 1,365 noncommissioned officers who would be deployed to secure concerts at the Lucky Chinatown Mall and the fireworks display at the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge on Friday night, as well as the Solidarity Parade on Saturday.

These officers would also patrol areas in Binondo such as Ongpin St., where visitors are expected to dine in restaurants and buy lucky charms and other items from stores.

Around 208 police officers would also be deployed to checkpoints in various parts of Manila starting Thursday.

In October last year, Malacañang declared Feb. 10, 2024 as a special non-working day throughout the country for the celebration of Chinese New Year.

Last month, it also declared Feb. 9 as an additional special non-working day to celebrate the occasion and enjoy a longer weekend. (PNA)