THE Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo) and the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) conducted a simultaneous unsealing of the service firearms of their personnel in their respective headquarters Monday morning.

The removal of the seals was led by Senior Superintendent Samuel Nacion, officer-in-charge of Noppo, and Senior Superintendent Melchor Coronel, acting director of BCPO, with their deputies, during the flag raising rites.

The firearms were sealed in the middle of December to avoid illegal discharge by policemen during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Tapes on policemen’s firearms in the province were still intact except for the seal on the gun of Police Officer 3 Edward Alejano, who shot his neighbor in Barangay Bata, Bacolod during the New Year’s Eve.

Alejano is an intelligence officer of BCPO Police Station 3.

Nacion and Coronel said there were no victims of stray bullets and indiscriminate firing during the New Year’s Eve revelries.

Nacion said there was an increase in firecracker-related incidents in Negros Occidental.

In 2014, Noppo recorded only 16 blast injuries, but the cases increased to 40 in 2015.

BCPO recorded 14 blast injuries in 2015, much lesser than the 40 firecracker-related incidents in the previous year.