Masbate under tight PNP watch

NAGA CITY—The Philippine National Police has placed the crime-prone island-province of Masbate under tight watch, especially this Christmas season.

Senior Superintendent Heriberto Olitoquit, acting police director of Masbate, said all chiefs of police in the province were ordered to deploy personnel in public places to strengthen security and to look out for possible threats.

Night-shift personnel on patrol were required to use blinkers as visible signs of police presence while checkpoints were set up all over the province.

The police anticrime program called Police Integrated Patrol System (PIPS), which aims to keep full “proactive” presence of lawmen, was implemented in Masbate City, Olitoquit said. The PIPS is an intelligence-driven system in which every officer manning a post must integrate data gathered from intelligence reports, criminal watch lists, broadcasts and other data from a wide net of intelligence assets, including barangay (village)-based anticrime teams.

A shooting incident inside a pawnshop in Masbate City on December 11, which resulted in the death of a 33-year-old man from Cataingan town, prompted the reinforcement of security operations in the province.

Masbate has the biggest crime volume among the six provinces of Bicol.—Jonas Cabiles Soltes