Policemen are seen along the streets in Talisay City to monitor the peace and order situation of the city. | Photo grabbed from Talisay Police Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Thirty policemen from the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) have been deployed to augment the Talisay City policemen manning the Police Community Precincts in Barangay Tangke, drug-infested barangay in Talisay City.
The deployment of the 30 PRO-7 policemen is one of the steps to achieve the Talisay City Police Station’s goal to clear Barangay Tangke of illegal drugs within three months.
“Kung mo ingon ka nga Tangke, ang mga tawo drugs dayun mahunahunaan. Unta ma change ang image aning Tangke,” said Police Chief Master Sergeant Meriam Roble, public information officer of the Talisay City Police Station about their goal for Tangke.
(If you talk about Tangke the poeple would then think about drugs. We hope the image of Tangke will change one day.)
Roble said some of the 30 policemen would be assigned to monitor all the entrances and exits of the barangay for 24 hours.
She said that they would monitor these areas in two 12-hour shifts.
“So far controlled nila ang and entrance and exit,” said Roble.
Roble was referring to the entrance and exit points of the barangay leading to Barangay Cansojong and Barangay San Roque.
More random checkpoints will also be conducted in these areas including those near schools and public places where people would usually gather.
She said this control of the area would be necessary especially since the area had been famous as the very place where drug trading and drug use would seem “normal” to people there.
She said another action they had undertaken in line with this goal and program was to identify and get to know the residents of the area by going house to house.
An activity that they started today, February 2, 2020.
She said this was a way for police to also establish a relationship to the people in the community.
She also assured residents in the barangay that they were doing their best to help the community to live peacefully free from illegal drugs./dbs