New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Philippine Consul General Elmer Cato (Photo courtesy of Consul General Elmer Cato)
MANILA – The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has assured the Philippine government that it is doing its "best" to protect the Filipino community and the rest of the public in the wake of the recent spate of anti-Asian hate violence in the city and the recent death of a Filipina nurse.
The assurance was made during a meeting on Thursday between NYC Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, Philippine Consul General Elmer Cato and PCol. Wilson Joseph Lopez, the police attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"Commissioner Shea conveyed his condolences over the death of Maria Luningning [Ambrocio] and said he understood where the Philippine Consulate General was coming from," Cato said in a statement.
"He assured me and PCol. Wilson Joseph Lopez, our police attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., that the NYPD is doing the best it can to protect our kababayan and the rest of the public and in making the streets of New York safe again for everyone," he added.
The Philippine Consulate General has repeatedly called on authorities to take more effective efforts, including heightened police visibility, to protect the public following anti-Asian hate incidents that targeted some of the members of the Filipino community.
In over 9,000 incident reports the Stop Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate group received from March 2020 to June 2021, at least 9.1 percent or 826 were reported Filipinos. (PNA)
