CAMP FLORENDO, La Union – Crime incidents in Region 1 for 2016 went down by 37 percent due to the intensified campaign against illegal drug personalities, according to the report of Chief Superintendent Gregorio Pimentel, director of Police Regional Office 1 (PRO1).
Pimentel reported on Monday during the New Year’s call of PRO1 high-ranking police officials here his office registered a tremendous decline in index crimes, such as murder and other heinous crimes. He said that a total of 2, 584 index crimes happened in 2016 compared to the 4,100 incidents in 2015, with a decrease of 1,516 or 36.98 percent.
Pimentel said that with 2, 772 drug-affected barangays out of the 3, 265 barangays of Region 1 composed of the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangsinan and the cities of Laoaf, Batac, Vigan, Candon, Dagupan, San Carlos and Alaminos, policemen were able to “clear” 1, 837 drug-affected barangays.
He also said that in police operations, of the 541 drug personalities tagged as high value targets , 393 were accounted for, 252 surrendered, 85 were arrested, and nine were killed; .45 deaths are under investigations, and two died of natural death.
With regards to the cleansing of personnel, 100 percent of PRO1 policemen have undergone mandatory drug testing but two uniformed personnel were found positive and are now under dismissal proceedings.
“I want to emphasize that the commitment to reforms remains to make the transformation efforts more tangible and more relevant to all concerned. We will continue cascading the project, Double Barrel Alpha, and will ensure that every policeman in the police stations understand the true meaning of the transformation of the organization and individual reforms,” Pimentel said. Jun Elias/Northbound Philippines News Online