ILOILO City – “Generally peaceful.” This was how the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) assessed the New Year celebrations across Western Visayas.
There were no major crimes and no stray bullet cases between Dec. 19 to Dec. 31, said Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, regional police director.
On the other hand, the number of New Year firecracker blast victims also dropped, said Pamuspusan, by 70.96 percent – from 93 during the 2019 New Year celebrations to only 27 this 2020 New Year revelry.
“We are happy. Gun holders showed they have discipline. We achieved our aim because of the people’s cooperation,’’ said the police director.
Last year, the PRO-6 recorded three stray bullet incidents with two persons injured, and one arrested for indiscriminate firing.
Of the 27 New Year firecracker blast victims recorded as of 3 p.m. yesterday, Capiz had the most cases at 10, followed by Iloilo province (five), Bacolod City (three), Negros Occidental (three), Iloilo City (three), Guimaras (two), and Antique (one).
There was one case of indiscriminate firing in Antique on Dec. 22. The suspect was arrested, said Pamuspusan.
“The success of our holiday season safety and security plan could be attributed to the strict implementation of police operations and law enforcement, the one-strike policy on stray bullets causing injury or death, awareness and cooperation of the general public, especially on the use of firecrackers, and the strategic deployment of police personnel,” he added.
The one-strike policy gave chiefs of police 24 hours to solve a stray bullet incident or they would be relieved from their posts.
Pamuspusan congratulated all city and provincial police directors and municipal police chiefs, and thanked the Ilonggos for their cooperation, including other government agencies.
According to Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, PRO-6 spokesperson, a total of 23 petty crimes were recorded from 4 a.m. of Dec. 31 to 4 a.m. of Jan. 1 but these did not have adverse effects on the overall peace and order situation in Western Visayas.
Malong said the Antique police recorded three physical injury cases; Bacolod City police had one robbery case; Capiz police had one physical injury case; Iloilo City police had one theft and five physical injury cases; Iloilo police had one murder and four physical injury cases; and Negros Occidental police had seven physical injury cases.
“Most of the physical injury cases were done by people who were under the influence of alcohol,” she said.(With a report from the Philippine National Police/PN)
