PRO-7 sends more cops to monitor drug activities in Brgys Tangke and San Roque, Talisay City

Police Major Gerald Ace Pelare (right) said they especially focus their anti-illegal drugs operation in the drug-infested barangays of Tangke and San Roque. Also in the photo is Talisay Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas (2nd from left). | CDND File Photo

TALISAY CITY, Cebu — Don’t be surprised if you see uniformed policemen roaming the streets of Talisay City.

The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) has deployed 30 additional policemen to especially ensure visibility in Barangays Tangke and San Roque that are considered the most drug-infested barangays in the city with millions worth of illegal drugs hauled in the area in 2019.

Read: Duterte accuses some cop officials in Cebu of having links to drugs

Police Major Gerard Ace Pelare, the chief of the Talisay City Police, said that the assignment of the 30 policemen in their city starting on Monday, January 27, 2020, has allowed them to neutralize drug personalities coming from the two barangays.

Their presence provided augmentation to the 70 existing personnel assigned at their police station.

“Daku kaayo ang tabang aning additional personnel nato. Ato ni silang gi deploy sa duha ka barangays aron mabantayan og tarong,” he said.

(The deployment of the additional personnel was proven to be beneficial to our city. We deployed them to monitor activities in the two barangays.)

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Pelare said that a lot of work needs to be done in order for them to track the illegal drugs trade pipeline in Barangays Tangke and San Roque, but work is now in progress.

On Wednesday, Jan. 29, Talisay police arrested 14 suspected drug peddlers and users in separate buy-bust operations in the neighboring barangays of Tangke and Cansojong.

Read: 14 persons nabbed in drug busts in Talisay City

Because of their ongoing operations in Barangays Tangke and San Roque, Pelare said it does not come as a surprise if drug peddlers would start to move to other neighboring barangays.

Pelare said that they are now expanding their watch to already include other city barangays instead of just focusing their anti-drug efforts in Barangays Tangke and San Roque.

Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), said that they have also intensified that monitoring in Minglanilla town that is located next to Talisay City in southern Cebu because of the anticipated dispersal of drug traders there.

He said that the police units in the two neighboring localities are closely coordinating and sharing intelligence information on the movement of drug personalities in their areas. / dcb