GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Police units in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) have emerged as the top performer nationwide in terms of operational accomplishments in the past nine months.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, director of Police Regional Office (PRO) 12, said Thursday data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters showed that the regional police posted the most number of anti-criminality and related operations from January to September.
He specifically cited the manhunt against Top 10 most wanted persons and operations against loose firearms and criminal gangs.
It topped the accomplishments among regional police units in Mindanao for the campaign against illegal drugs, he said.
PRO-12 units arrested a total of 334 most wanted persons since January, accounting for 14 percent of the accomplishment nationwide, according to Rasco.
It was followed by PRO – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 11 percent, and PRO-Cordillera with 8 percent.
In terms of recovered loose firearms, Rasco said the regional police topped the list with 809, followed by PRO-Cordillera with 392, and PRO-8 (Eastern Visayas) with 195.
The official said some 124 members of criminal gangs were arrested, neutralized or surrendered in parts of the region during the period.
The National Capital Region Police Office is second on the list with 40 while PRO-13 (Caraga) has 32.
For the anti-illegal drug operations, Rasco said PRO-12 ranked first in Mindanao from Dec. 5, 2017 to Oct. 1, 2018 with 1,548.
He said these operations resulted in the arrest of 1,637 drug personalities and killing of 138 others during shootouts.
PRO-10 (Northern Mindanao) ranked second with 1,410 operations, 1,696 arrested and 58 slain drug personalities while PRO-9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) was third with 1,229 operations, 1,658 arrested and 18 slain drug suspects.
Since the start of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war against illegal drugs” in July 2016, Rasco said PRO-12 already conducted – as of Oct. 1 – a total of 112,723 anti-drug operations and arrested some 177,460 suspects.
A total of 1,278,090 drug personalities have surfaced and surrendered to local police units while 5,227 died during police operations, he said.
“These are huge accomplishments for the PRO-12 and a major boost to the morale of our personnel,” Rasco said, crediting their strong performance to the cooperation of local government units and officials as well as community stakeholders.
“Rest assured that we are doing our best to further improve our performance and serve the people better,” he added. (PNA)
