“IF THERE'S a way that we can help Bacolod City, let's also extend a hand.”
This was what Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson told Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) Director Colonel Leo Pamittan amid the spate of shooting incidents in the province’s capital city in June.
Lacson said Pamittan has assured him that the shooting incidents have not spread throughout the province.
“I think we can also see (that) but I told him let's continue to be vigilant," Lacson said, adding that he and Bacolod City Mayor-elect Alfredo "Albee" Benitez recently met with Pamittan and Bacolod City Police Office Director Colonel Thomas Joseph Martir regarding the matter.
"This will also alert notorious individuals that it is not easy to just carry out the execution and just get away with it... That's the message that we want to send," the governor said.
He also said if police can identify the suspects and actually make an arrest, it will somehow assure the public that it is not getting out of control,
Nine shooting incidents have transpired in the highly urbanized city since June 1, wherein seven of the victims died, police records showed.
“I understand that in the latest incident, the suspect was already identified though they did not mention the name,” the governor said.