By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Antique Provincial Police Office (APPO) is going to continue its campaign on peace and order this year by further reducing index crimes.
Supt. Norby Escobar, APPO Deputy Director for Operations, said in an interview Thursday that the police personnel in Antique province will sustain its campaign against loose firearms and anti-drugs, to which they attributed the significant decrease of the index crime committed in 2018.
“For 2019, we will sustain the campaign against loose firearms and anti-drugs operations to further reduce the index crimes,” Escobar said.
Index crimes are those that had been committed against persons such as murder, homicide, physical injury and rape, and crimes against property such as robbery.
Based on the latest available record of the APPO as of November 2018, there were only 17 cases of homicide as compared to 26 cases in 2017.
On physical injury, there were 124 cases in 2018 as compared to 211 in 2017.
There were also 34 cases of rape as compared to that of 2017, when there were 45 cases.
There were 29 reported cases of robbery in 2017 while in 2018 there were only 14 cases.
Meanwhile, Escobar said that for 2019, around 700 APPO police personnel will also be busy for the May 13, 2019 national and local midterm elections.
“We are now busy preparing for the security plan for the elections,” he said.
He said that the police, together with other government agencies, particularly the Commission on Elections (Comelec), will do its best to ensure a peaceful and safe elections in all 18 towns of the province.
