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LUCENA CITY––A three-day simultaneous anti-criminality law enforcement operation (Sacleo) in Quezon province led to the arrests of 239 suspected criminals, the police said Monday, April 18.
Col. Joel Villanueva, Quezon police chief, said anti-illegal drug operatives from April 15-17 collared 17 drug suspects and seized “shabu” (crystal meth) with a street value of P86,496 in 39 towns and two cities.
The police also arrested 51 wanted criminals, 129 illegal gamblers, 29 illegal fishers, eight illegal loggers and coconut cutters, four with undocumented firearms, and one carrying a bladed weapon.
Sacleo replaced the “one-time, big-time operation,” an all-out war of the police against all local forms of criminality in a given period.
At least 745 people were also accosted during the same period for violation of safety and health protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The violators were confronted for not wearing face masks and not observing physical distancing.
As of Sunday, the active COVID-19 cases in the province remained at seven in six localities.
At least 35 towns are COVID-19-free. Those previously infected in the localities have either recovered or died, the latest report from the Integrated Provincial Health Office showed.
The national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) renewed the alert level 1 status of Lucena City, the capital of the province, until the end of the month.
The rest of the province would remain under alert level 2 during the same period, the IATF said.