BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Is this city becoming unsafe?
This question is doing rounds on social media after the city recorded seven shootings already this June.
Earlier on Thursday, 54-year-old Adonis Matulac was shot dead along Lacson Extension at Barangay Singcang-Airport’s Purok Hollow Blocks.
The incident was followed 24 hours later by another shooting in the city’s Purok Langis in Barangay Banago. A man only identified by his alias “Bryan/Drey” was gunned down inside a computer shop.
Both incidents were suspected to be drug-related.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) should intensify police visibility.
Atty. Lyzander “Bong” Dilag, spokesperson of Mayor-elect Alfredo “Albee” Benitez, said the incoming administration is committed to strengthening the city’s police capabilities.
“We take this occasion to reiterate and accord our trust and confidence in our police force in the performance of their duties, especially in the maintenance of peace and order,” Dilag said as he read the statement of Benitez.
Among the promises made by Benitez for the BCPO include additional force multipliers for police stations as well as strengthening their logistical capabilities such as providing them with fuel to conduct patrols and quickly respond to incidents.
Police Regional Office 6 spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Solis, meanwhile, said the regional police director, Police Brigadier General Flynn Dongbo, has ordered the BCPO to thoroughly investigate the series of shooting incidents.
Dongbo seemed to demand results from the BCPO, by ordering them to pursue and arrest the perpetrators and making sure that the criminal cases against them are “airtight.”/PN
