Central Visayas cops to receive firearms

POLICEMEN in Central Visayas will be among the beneficiaries of the government’s plan to procure 74,000 guns.

The procurement of the firearms was announced by President Simeon Benigno Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last Monday.

Senior Supt. Orlando Ualat, chief of staff of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said 40 percent of the almost 8,000 policemen in Central Visayas have no firearms yet.

In yesterday’s Talakayan Sa Isyung Pulis forum at the PRO-7 headquarters, police officials in Cebu backed the president’s declaration in his Sona that the country’s crime volume has reduced.

In Central Visayas, crime volume decreased from 13,270 to 10,871 for the first semester of this year.

The Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) recorded 21 percent decrease or from 3,868 to 3,025, while the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said that from 4,167,  crime volume dipped to 3,133 or a 24.8 percent decease.

Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, chief of the CCPO, said the motorcycles issued by the city government to the policemen and the installing of tarpaulins bearing police hotlines in strategic places helped decrease the crime.

In Mandaue City, the crime volume decreased by 3.7 percent or from 885 to 852. From 1,308, only 935 crimes were recorded in Lapu-Lapu./CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON