ILOILO CITY — The head of the Western Visayas police on Tuesday vowed to further improve law enforcement and services to the public amid their accomplishments.
“We want to raise the bar of the police service even higher to make us truly deserving of the mandate to serve and protect,” said Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas) Director, said in his speech during the 117th Police Service Anniversary celebration here.
Bulalacao recognized that there have been “dramatic increases” in the statistics of major accomplishments in the region during the past seven months.
He reported that 1,094 drug personalities were arrested through police operations from January to July this year, higher by 93 percent compared to the 565 arrests made in the same period last year.
The arrest of drug personalities resulted in the confiscation of PHP54-million worth of illegal drugs, higher than the PHP4.3-million worth of illegal drugs confiscated in the same period last year.
On the campaign against illegal gambling, 1,930 persons were arrested, 271 percent higher than the 505 arrests made last year.
Meanwhile, 227 most wanted persons and 1,752 wanted persons were also arrested.
Some 335 persons were also apprehended, resulting in the recovery of 906 assorted loose firearms, or more than 109 percent higher than the 432 confiscations last year.
Bulalacao also observed a 69-percent drop in the eight focused crimes in the region.
“Consequently, our enforcement operations propel a safer Region 6 , considering that crime volume plummeted by almost 45 percent or 12,979 crime incidents from 29,127 last year to only 16,148 this year,” he said.
“But we will never sit on our laurels for there is always a room for improvement, regardless of how overwhelming our accomplishments would be,” he added.
Bulalacao recognized the “selfless” efforts of the men and women in uniform of PRO-6 who have shown hard work to achieve the office’s accomplishments.
Some of the best police offices and police officers under the PRO-6 were recognized during the event.
This year, the Capiz Police Provincial Office bagged the best provincial office while the Iloilo City Police Office won the city category at the regional level.
Other awardees were the Roxas City Police Station as Best Component City Police Station; Kalibo Municipal Police Station (MPS), Best MPS; Capiz Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC), Best PMFC; and Iloilo City Mobile Force Company (MFC) as Best MFC.
For the individual category, some of those recognized were Senior Supt. Samuel Nacion of the Capiz PPO as Best Senior Police Commissioned Officer for Administration; Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba of Iloilo PPO as Best Senior Police Commissioned Officer for Operation; and Senior Police Officer 1 Nida Gregas, Chief of the Public Information Office of the Aklan PPO as Best Senior Police Non-commissioned Officer for Administration.
Special awards were given to other outstanding units under PRO-6.
The distribution of awards was led by Police Deputy Director General Ramon Apolinario, who commended PRO-6 for its significant contributions in achieving a 20.4 percent decline in the crime incidents in the entire country in the past two years.
“The challenge now is to sustain this downtrend and surpass the achievements,” Apolinario said.
He then urged all PRO-6 personnel to remain steadfast behind the call of President Rodrigo Duterte towards change in the country by strengthening the war against illegal drugs and crime. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
