Some of loose firearms recovered by Samar provincial office in Calbayog City. (Photo by Sarwell Meniano)
PALO, Leyte -- Samar Police Provincial Office (SPPO) officials on Monday admitted that Calbayog City is the focus of their crackdown on loose firearms citing the city’s high crime incidence.
SPPO director, Senior Supt. Nicolas Torre III, said putting Calbayog as priority in their drive against unregistered firearms is not because of politics, but based on facts.
“We are not singling out Calbayog. It just shows in the crime map and crime analysis that the concentration of crime is in that particular city,” said Torre said in a press briefing where he turned over assorted firearms and bullets recovered last week in Calbayog to the regional office for further examination.
“The crime map shows high incidence so we base our decision in deploying our resources. After shooting incidents, we have been recording a lot of hacking incidence maybe because we have already recovered many loose firearms,” Torre added.
Early this year, the City Council of Calbayog passed a resolution declaring Torre as “persona non grata” citing the official’s alleged involvement in partisan political activity during last year’s election and failure to curb criminality in the city.
Calbayog Mayor Ronaldo Aquino endorsed the adoption of the resolution.
Torre said he is just doing his job to fight crimes in Calbayog, which is considered as the third largest city in the Philippines in terms of land area.
Another factor why crime is more prevalent in Calbayog is its vast land area, which is half of the size of Laguna province, Torre noted.
“Laguna has 3,000 policemen while Calbayog City has 100 policemen assigned in the area,” Torre said.
On August 14, Samar police recovered a cache of loose firearms from a village chief in Calbayog City. Samar police intelligence team recovered during the raid .45-caliber pistols, magazines, carbine rifles, revolvers, homemade shotguns, grenades, live ammunitions, and improvised shotguns.
Samar police is investigating why a local official in an upland Patong village have to keep assorted firearms. (PNA)
