At least 302 individuals arrested in week-long CPPO SACLEO

Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — At least 302 individuals were arrested from the week-long Simultaneous Anti Criminality Law Enforcement Operation (SACLEO) of the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) from May 31 to June 6, 2021.

CPPO director, Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, said that they conducted a total of 291 operations over the 50 municipal and city police stations in Cebu province for a week.

He added that several stations in the province failed to deliver their accomplishments during their simultaneous operations. Soriano said he has already directed these stations to explain their ‘zero performance’ as they will be put under investigation to know if they deliberately concealed the results of their operations.

“Ide-deliberate namin together with the staff, consultative naman ang approach ko sa lahat, idi-discuss namin kung anong magandang decision, if we give them another chance or we do some drastic measures para ma address to,” he added.

(We will deliberate it together with the staff. I follow a consultative approach for everyone, we will discuss what is the best decision, should we give them another chance or we do some drastic measures to address this.)

He, however, clarified that ‘zero performance’ does not mean that there are no accomplishments or operations at all.  He added that he is checking each operation such as illegal drugs, illegal gambling, and loose firearms. In areas where they got negative accomplishments, they will be asked to explain.

For illegal drugs, CPPO conducted at least 69 operations resulting in the arrest of 77 drug personalities and the seizure of over 80 grams of suspected ‘shabu’ with an estimated market value of P554, 948.

These drug operations were assessed to have been lower even considering the number of municipalities and cities under the CPPO. He said this is because the big players of drugs have already been ‘neutralized’.

“Lalong-lalo na sa Talisay, lahat ng major players dyan ay neutralized na. So yung nagsusulpotan na new player ay small players nalang ito and they get small supplies outside of the province, di ko naman masabi kung saan,” he added.

(Especially in Talisay City, their major players are already neutralized. So those new players are just small players who source out their small supplies from outside the province, that I could not disclose where.)

Among these was the buy-bust operation that resulted in an armed encounter in San Fernando town last May 31 which led to the death of a high-value individual in terms of illegal drug trading.

READ: San Fernando bust: 1 dead, 1 nabbed; P27k shabu seized

The CCPO was also able to serve 107 arrest warrants, wherein all subjects were arrested. Among those nabbed was the Top 9 Most Wanted in Talisay City for illegal drug activities, Top 5 Most Wanted in Medellin, and in Asturias, Cebu for rape.

For illegal gambling, Soriano said that they have arrested 111 individuals in 44 operations and confiscated a total of P14,000 bet money.

Soriano also reported on their campaign against loose firearms, saying they have conducted 71 operations and arrested seven persons. A total of 52 assorted firearms were seized while 20 other loose firearms were surrendered to them.

“Actually yung SACLEO is May 31, one day lang kasi yung designated ng region. One week yung effort natin, maganda nga yung naging results,” he concluded..

(Actually, SACLEO was done only last May 31, supposedly a one-day operation as designated by the region. We made it a week-long effort, which yielded good results.)   /rcg