At least 300 individuals including three police officers and a government official were arrested for violating the gun ban imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) since January last year.
Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO-7), told reporters in a press conference that since the start of the Comelec gun ban, police have launched operations since last April to make sure that the elections were peaceful.
“These include the conduct of checkpoints and the conduct of checkpoints, search warrant, patrol operations and accounting of wanted persons,” said Lawas.
One of these three police officers who violated the gun ban in Cebu province was PO1 Ian Patrick Carvellida, who was caught in a drug den in Pinamungajan, northern Cebu. He was wearing civilian clothes and brought with him his service firearm, an act in violation the Comelec gun ban.
Another gun ban violator, PO1 Henry Virtudazo, a rookie policeman, was also arrested in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, for bringing his firearm while he was off duty.
Lawas claimed that their intensified operations had made PRO-7 No. 1 in rank on nationwide election monitoring center especially in conducting checkpoints.
From the period of January 10 to May 11 this year, the regional police forces were able to arrest 310 people, who violated the gun ban that yielded to 336 firearms, and around 20 grenades.
Police were also able to confiscate 1,687 ammunition and 46 bladed weapons in the duration of the ban.
“We don’t want to rest on this accomplishment. We will assess and analyze our performance as far as these police operations are concerned, and study where we failed and where we lacked, so that we can enhance this,” he said.
Lawas said that the job for the police continues, and we will still be implementing strategies to curb the crime statistics in Central Visayas.
“We will conduct weekly assessments on our lambat-sibat. Our goal is to decrease prevalent crimes like robbery and theft,” said Lawas.
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