BACOLOD City Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, deputy city director for operations of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), urged the city officials to help them in the campaign against illegal drugs.
Espenido said the local government unit (LGU) should support the police to stop the operation of illegal drugs.
“When I arrived here, I don’t see any support from the local government,” he said.
He added the local government unit (LGU) should offer assistance to the police to address the illegal problem here.
Espenido pointed out that Bacolod City is already a shabulized city so there’s a need of cooperation from the LGU and the police.
Espenido recalled that when he was assigned in Albuera and Ozamiz, the LGUs were helping them to stop the operation of illegal drugs in their areas.
“They (LGUS) provided us vehicles, reward system, allowance, gasoline, and rice, but here there’s none. We are hopeful that even without request the LGU will offer assistance for our drug operations. We need to unite because this is for our city, we cannot achieve our goal if we will not unite especially, the business sectors, religious sectors, and LGU,” Espenido said.
Since he’s new in Bacolod, he said he will also observe the LGU including the judiciary, the court, and prosecutor’s office because they have a big role in the war against illegal drugs for the prosecution of the suspects.
He added that he was assigned in Bacolod to address the illegal problem and he can operate anytime even without an order from Colonel Henry Binas, director of BCPO.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said that Bacolod is badly-hit by illegal drugs, the reason he placed Espenido in the city and told Espenido he is free to kill everybody.
For his part, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said that every month, the city government allotted P478,000 for BCPO.
“This is the city’s assistance from the city mayor. He (Espenido) can also talk to his superior about the city’s assistance for the police,” he said.
He added that Espenido can also talk with the mayor to lay down their needs for their operations.
Familiaran noted that Bacolod City is one of the LGUs providing big assistance to the Philippine National Police.
Moreover, Familiaran also welcomed the statement of Espenido that there are rampant operations of illegal drugs in the city based on the data of BCPO.
“It’s also a big challenge for our police because they are a law enforcement unit to neutralize the suspects. We have so many entry points here and that’s the problem. They should have a security measures to stop the entry of illegal drugs here and to identify the sources,” Familiaran said.