Six persons were killed and 16 others were arrested in simultaneous police anti-crime operations in Negros Oriental on Thursday.
In a press briefing this noon from Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental broadcasted on Facebook Live, Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, said they were focusing their one time big time operation in Guihulngan City, which they believed has a lot of loose firearms.
The operations, dubbed as “simultaneous police operations” or Sempo, involved 113 search warrants, 82 of which were in Guihulngan City, all involving illegal possession of firearms, Sinas said.
The fatalities were identified as Reneboy Fat, Jaime Revilla, Dondon Isugan, Constancio Languita, Jun Cubul, Demetrio Fat.
All the six killings involved persons subjected to search warrants for illegal possession of firearm who fought back and resisted arrest. They happened on the same day but in different areas in Negros Oriental.
Based on the data from PRO-7, five of the six died in Guihulngan City while the sixth fatality was slain in Santa Catalina town.
As of this writing, the police have so far only implemented 27 search warrants and confiscated 22 firearms.
Of the 16 arrested, Sinas said two were incumbent barangay captains in the city.
Sinas said that they were “readjusting” their force in Guihulngan following the memorandum order of the President to run after the New People’s Army (NPA) believed to be active in the city’s hinterland areas.
“We made some assessment and readjust our focus here (Guihulngan). Nidaghan ang pinusilay dinhi (A number of shooting incidents happened here) because of the proliferation of firearms,” said Sinas.