CALBAYOG CITY- Despite of the spate of killings that rocked this city, it remains to be peaceful. This was the assertions of Mayor Ronald Aquino who backed his claim based on a survey indicating that majority of the city residents still prefer to live rather relocate to other areas.
Aquino, who chairs the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) for Eastern Visayas, lamented on the perceptions that the killings were related to politics. He said that these killings have yet to fully establish by police authorities to political intramurals. Majority of the victims were barangay officials, the recent of which involved the barangay chairmen of Dagum and Carayman. Police authorities in the city reported of 15 killings since the start of the year. Last year, there were 47 shooting incidents in Calbayog. Calbayog is always considered a hot spot area during elections for years now.
But Mayor Aquino insisted that Calbayog remains to be orderly and peaceful despite these series of killings with the result of a survey conducted by a private survey group funded by the Department of Interior and Local Government thru the Citizen Satisfaction Index System Report telling otherwise. Based on said survey, it indicated that 96% of the city residents said that they would still stay in Calbayog City with the remaining 4% opting to relocate elsewhere. Although the survey was conducted last year, Aquino said that the result was still a good indication that majority of the residents of the city have confidence on his administration in solving the killings and other illegal activities occurring in the city.
Aquino also said that services for the betterment of the public are not affected despite of the killing incidents which saw the local Church officials condemning them. Meantime, Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan, speaking at the Samar Island Partnership for Peace and Development (SIPPAD) meeting which is a Church led-convergence of government agencies and civil society groups, declared her total support to the pastoral message of Bishop Isabelo Abarquez. (ROEL T.AMAZONA)
