“MAYBE he (Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido) has his own basis which we are not privy of. Let’s give that to him because that is his special mission.”
This was stressed by Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia after Espenido, deputy city director for operations of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), earlier announced that Bacolod City is already a “shabulized city” (shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride).
“However, we also take cognizant to the fact that the local police had also done its job,” Leonardia said.
He said on record, BCPO was number one in region in terms of apprehension and confiscations of illegal drugs.
“Meaning, our police are doing their job and we have to give credit to Colonel Henry Binas, director of BCPO, and the BCPO for lowering the volume of crime in Bacolod,” he added.
The mayor said BCPO has recorded a decrease of 35 percent in its total crime volume from January 1 to December 31, 2019.
The crimes declined by 1,004 from 2,836 in 2018 to 1,832 in 2019. Index crimes or crimes against person and property also declined by 41.88 percent from 628 in 2018 to 365 in 2019.
There’s also a significant decrease in the cases of theft from 260 cases in 2018 to 132 in 2019; robbery from 136 in 2018 to 77 in 2019; rape from 67 in 2018 to 53 in 2019; and motornapping from 16 in 2018 to six in 2019, but there’s also a slight increase in the cases of murder from 24 in 2018 to 31 in 2019, and homicide from 10 in 2018 to 14 in 2019.
“For me, this is a positive development because if the BCPO concentrates on peace and order and Espenido concentrates on the ant- illegal drug campaign so maybe this is the solution to clean up the city,” Leonardia said.
Espenido earlier said that based on the accomplishment of BCPO, Bacolod City is already a shabulized city.
“All of our police stations have accomplishments on illegal drugs, but why is the operation of illegal drugs still on-going? We should address this problem, let’s do our job seriously to stop this problem,” Espenido said.
He said he was assigned in Bacolod to address the illegal problem and he can operate anytime even without an order from Binas. (MAP)