Police personnel and "force multipliers" or members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team across the National Capital Region prepare for the intensified and recalibrated police visibility deployment initiative on May 26, 2025. Darylle Sarmiento, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — The government is deploying 1,680 police personnel and village watchmen to various strategic locations across Metro Manila for a recalibrated police visibility initiative, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Monday.

Some 840 are personnel from the Philippine National Police, while the other 840 are "force multipliers" or members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team.

The DILG launched the initiative at Camp Bagong Diwa in Quezon City. It was attended by 1,120 police personnel and force multipliers.

DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the initiative would be a "permanent policy" and would be expanded in other areas of the country.

"Wala nang statistics, wala na lahat 'yan, balewala sa akin. The only metric that I have is that the people should feel safer," said Remulla.

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Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin, Metro Manila police chief, said that crimes recently were "sensationalized" and that the supposed increase in the crime rate was based on what people see online, which he claimed as "rehashed."

From November 2024 to May 2025, "focused crimes" decreased by 23 percent or a difference of 779 crime incidents compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Metro Manila police.

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