Leyte gov wants more troops to stop violence in 3rd district

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY — Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla has directed the director of the provincial police to deploy more police personnel after a series of shooting incidents in the third district.

Petilla wanted Colonel Erwin Portillo to make sure that the conduct of the Oct. 30 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in the district would be orderly and peaceful.

“We’re given special attention to the third district. In fact, half of our police force is monitoring and securing the district because of the violence reported from that area,” Petilla said.

“We will do everything to prevent violence (in the third district),” he added.

At least 72 soldiers from the 93rd Infantry Battalion were deployed to Leyte’s third district on Saturday, Oct. 21, to help stop the violence in the place.

The regional headquarters of the Philippine National Police also sent 366 policemen to Leyte. Most of them were assigned in the third district.

The series of shooting incidents in the third district has alarmed both Petilla and the district’s congressional representative Anna Veloso Tuazon.

Tuazon said she found it “heart-breaking” that violence has occurred in the district.

“We want to uphold the law. We are closely with the law enforcers for them to investigate further and to help anticipate what measures are to be put in place to prevent these things from happening,” she said in a radio interview.

Leyte’s third district is composed of Calubian, Leyte, San Isidro, Tabango, and Villaba towns.

However, only Villaba and Leyte were classified as areas of concern or under yellow category by the Regional Joint Security Control Center, which is chaired by the Commission on Elections in Eastern Visayas, with members of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine Coast Guard as members.

Areas under the yellow category or areas of concern are those with a history of election-related incidents in the last elections and possible employment of private/partisan armed groups.

On Monday, Oct. 23, Aldwin Perez, president of the farmer’s association in Barangay Tag-abaca in Villaba, was killed in an ambush by still unknown individuals.

His brother-in-law Raul Cosinillo, village chairman of Barangay Mataloto in Leyte town, was also murdered on May 10.

Perez was on his way home to Barangay Tag-abaca on board his motorcycle after sending his daughter to school in Villaba when the assailant shot him in different parts of his body, which resulted in his death.

Police investigators could not determine yet if his killing was politically related.

Last Saturday, Oct. 21, a Sangguniang Kabataan council candidate was killed, while another was hurt in a shooting incident in Mataloto.

Lawyer Elmer Mape was also gunned down while he was at his farm in Barangay Calbugos, Villaba on August 24.

These incidents remain unsolved.

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