CAMP RUPERTO KANGLEON,PALO, Leyte- Nope, they are not focusing their operations in Calbayog City for some personal reason but because it is where most of the shooting incidents are taking place.
Thus said Senior Supt. Nicholas Torre III when asked why they appear to focus their attention in Calbayog City whose council declared him earlier as ‘persona non grata’ or not welcome.
City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino himself openly accused Torre as to be more ‘close’ to Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan, a political nemesis.
“We are not singling out Calbayog. It just shows in the crime map and crime analysis that the concentration of crimes are in that particular city. Thus, the police is also concentrating their efforts in the said city,” Torre, in a press conference on Monday here, said.
Torre joined Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, police regional director, in the presentation of several firearms confiscated by the Samar police provincial office in a raid in Barangay Patong, a remote village in Calbayog City.
Torre said that Calbayog’s big land area make it ‘prone’ to have a high crime incidents as he noted that the city has only about 100 policemen securing its residents.
Thus, Torre said they are extending assistance to the city police to solve crimes and chase after criminals operating especially in remote villages of the city.
Torre said they will continue their operations against those who are accused of committing crimes to ensure the safety of the people and the city itself.
Because of the series of killing incidents, Calbayog was derisively known as “Killbayog” of which Mayor Aquino strongly opposed.
He said that the label has affected their campaign to attract more investors and tourists to their city.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
