High-value target surrenders; 95 guns turned over in Ronda

Supt. Joie Yape, Ronda police chief, (inset left) is grateful that suspect Jeric Torres (inset right) heed his call to surrender. Above, a police officer checks the rifle and pistol turned over by Torres.
CDN PHOTO/BENJIE TALISIC

POLICE and the local government of Ronda, a southwestern town 63 km from Cebu City, have made headway in their campaign against illegal drugs and loose firearms after one of the provincial police’s high-value targets surrendered, and government officials and residents turned over to police 95 short and long firearms in a month’s time.

The surrender of Jeric “AAY” Torres, who was allegedly a leader of an armed group in the town, would make the town more peaceful, said Supt. Joie Yape Jr., concurrent chief of the Ronda Police Station.

Yape said he hoped that Torres’ surrender would also make Francisco Omboy, another alleged leader of an armed group in the town, to also give himself up.

Torres told Cebu Daily News in an interview yesterday that he surrendered and turned over his guns because he wanted to live peacefully and that is the reason he heeded calls from the town and police officials for him to surrender.

Yape said that Torres was one of those included in the list of high-value targets of the Cebu Provincial Police Office.

He said that with Torres’ surrender, the quarrel between Omboy and Torres families would be resolved.

Yape said that Torres and Omboy are related and their families had not been on good terms.

Yape also showed his gratitude to the Ronda municipal government officials led by Mayor Mariano Blanco and Vice Mayor Jonah John Ungab for their cooperation in supporting his efforts to make the town peaceful.

Yesterday, during Ronda’s town fiesta, 522 drug surrenderers, who underwent the town’s community based drug rehabilitation program, were presented.