Quezon’s ‘Blue Hawks’ start plying main roads

SENIOR Supt. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan (right), Quezon police chief, inspects the members of the Blue Hawk motorcycle police unit. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LUCENA CITY—At least 32 motorcycle policemen called the “Blue Hawks” have started patrolling major roads in Quezon province since Wednesday to counter the threat posed by criminals riding motorcycles.

“Specific problems require specific solutions,” Senior Supt. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Quezon police chief, said in a statement issued on Wednesday during the launching ceremony of “Oplan Blue Hawks” to highlight Crime Prevention Week in the province.

Ylagan admitted that sending motorcycle-riding policemen on patrol along the entire 150-kilometer stretch of Maharlika Highway and other roads in the province might not completely stop crimes involving motorcycle-riding men.

But the Blue Hawks, he said, “will definitely serve as a deterrent.”

Members of the team are graduates of a 45-day motorcycle-riding course held in April and May.

Some of the policemen will ride new 180cc motorcycles donated by Public Safety Savings and Loan Association Inc.

But most will use their own motorcycles while the Quezon provincial police office awaits donations from local government units in the province and the private sector.

Members of the unit are fully armed and equipped with mobile phones and high-powered handheld radios.

Authorities have been stumped by the surge in crimes committed by motorcycle-riding suspects.

Ylagan identified the central parts of the province, where motorcycle-riding criminals conduct robberies and assassinations with alarming regularity, as areas of priority for the Blue Hawk unit.