The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) declared ''full alert'' and deployed thousands of policemen for Holy Week in Metro Manila.

"Actually the exact number of our police deployment in Metro Manila is around 24,000 all in all . So all of them during this time of Semana Santa we are on full alert," Maj. Gen. Felipe Natividad, NCRPO director, said during Monday's ''Laging Handa'' public briefing.

Natividad said policemen were deployed "24/7" in areas of convergence like the bus terminals, churches and malls.

"They (people) tend to go to malls and places of convergence to take advantage of the vacation. We are also monitoring that in Metro Manila of course our bus terminals, we also have policemen manning the 'Malasakit Desk' of the LTFRB", he said.

Natividad said they will deploy more police ''in areas where we know that there are crimes that occur.''

''All of our assets, even the motorcycle riding units and the patrol cars that are where we deploy them in that area and checkpoint because of this election are still there which also serve as our deterrent against the criminal elements," he added.

Natividad said there were no threats monitored but the police remain alert for any elements that may take advantage.

"We have not received any threat. We have not received any reports on that but at the same time we are not bringing down our guard that is why we deployed our policemen," he said.

"We don't really have an impending threat although we have to expect, we know that the alert level status has eased to one so there might be bad elements in the community that might take advantage so this is why we deploy our personnel in the entire Metro Manila," he added. Robina Asido/DMS