ILOILO CITY -- A total of 2,022 wanted persons had been arrested in Western Visayas from January to July this year.
Director of the Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas), Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, said Monday that aside from their relentless campaign against illegal drugs and other forms of criminality, they have also been focusing on the arrest of wanted persons.
Based on data from PRO-6, the 2,022 wanted persons arrested over the seven-month period marked a 5.25-percent increase compared to the 1,903 wanted persons apprehended in the same period last year.
Bulalacao said 250 of those arrested this year were identified as “Most Wanted Persons”.
Some 642 of these wanted persons were caught by the Negros Occidental police; 389 by the Iloilo police; 256 by the Bacolod City police; 190 by the Capiz police; 172 by the Iloilo City police; 149 by the Aklan police; 146 by the Antique police; and 78 by the Guimaras police.
“The increase in the arrest of wanted persons plays a significant role in the crime environment, having noted a decrease in crime volume for the same period,” Bulalacao said.
During the celebration of PRO-6’s 117th Police Service Anniversary last Aug. 14, Bulalacao observed a 69-percent drop in the eight focused crimes in the region.
He reported that the incidence of crime in the region plummeted by almost 45 percent, from 29,127 last year to only 16,148 this year.
To sustain the rise in the arrest of wanted persons in the region, Bulalacao said the Regional Evaluation Committee has included the accounting of wanted persons as one of the basis or parameters in the evaluation of all the police units in the six provinces of the region.
“PRO-6 stays true to our commitment to address criminality in Western Visayas,” he added. (PNA)
