Women and Children’s Protection Desk personnel of the Mandaue City Police Office conduct information drive during the Comelec checkpoint on January 26, 2022. | Photo courtesy of Station six Mandaue FB page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police arrested 41 individuals in Commission on Elections (Comelec) checkpoints in Mandaue City from the period of January 9 to January 29, 2022.
Of the 41 arrests, 39 were caught for possession of suspected “shabu”, one for a handgun, and one for a bladed weapon, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Franc Oriol, deputy city director for operations of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Oriol said that appropriate formal complaints were already filed against those arrested.
The arrests were also the result of the 300 checkpoints conducted since January 9.
Some checkpoints were also joined by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), he said.
Police also confiscated 2.52 grams of suspected “shabu” with an estimated market value of P17,136.00.
“Pinaagi ni sya [illegal drugs] sa [virtual or visual] search nato diha sa mga checkpoints. Una niini kasagaran pinaagi sa mga nagkalainlaing violations, sa traffic, tapos pag search sa atoang nga pulis, nakuha-an silag illegal nga drugas,” Oriol said.
(The confiscation [of illegal drugs] was done through [virtual or visual] search in checkpoints. Most of these confiscations and arrests start with the different traffic violations then the search of the police led to the discovery of the illegal drugs.)
So far, Oriol said that the people were already aware of the restrictions during this election period and they were cooperative at checkpoints where they would voluntarily open their vehicles for visual searches.
Preparations for election period
Regarding their preparations for the election period, Oriol said they would continue their checkpoints to avoid entry of illegal firearms.
He also said that the intelligence units of the Mandaue City Police Office would also continue to monitor individuals, who could possibly plan for criminal activities before and during the election.
Orio, however, said that Mandaue was not a hot spot in the election period because no major election-related incidents happened here in the past years.
READ: Election gun ban starts: PNP, Comelec, AFP conduct joint checkpoints