Police consider Eastern Samar generally peaceful

THE Police Provincial Office of Eastern Samar considered the entire province as generally peaceful.

Provincial Police Director Manuel Cubillo, in an interview, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that no major crimes happened across the province, prompting them to consider the place safe and peaceful.

Similarly, the municipality of Guiuan was declared by the Philippine Army as an insurgency-free municipality. The joint declaration was made last October 10 at the Guiuan town hall and attended by no less than the commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division, Major General Gerardo Layug.

The Express learned that aside from the municipality of Guiuan, the towns of Balangkayan, Maydolong, Taft and Salcedo, all in Eastern Samar, were also declared by the Army as insurgent-free towns.

Cubillo added the Philippine National Police is supporting the Army, being the lead agency in attaining the campaign on peace and order.

“We always make sure that all areas included within our jurisdiction are peaceful and conflict manageable, in a way that offices of the local police could sustain the peacefulness of the area,” he said.

According to Cubillo, though the five municipalities in the province have already been declared as insurgent-free, the presence of officials of government soldiers is still necessary.

Cubillo said the presence of the New People’s Army could still be felt in the northern municipalities and southern areas of Eastern Samar like Llorente, Quinapundan and MacArthur. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)