ILOILO City – Weeklong police operations in Western Visayas led to the arrest of 266 wanted persons, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
The operations – a total of 203 were carried out – were from Nov. 9 to 15 this year.
Of the 266 wanted persons, 54 belonged to the Top 10 most wanted persons list in their respective areas.
Meanwhile, in the campaign against illegal gambling, PRO-6 was able to apprehend a total of 297 bet collectors of an illegal numbers game.
Also, weeklong drug operations resulted to the arrest of 62 drug personalities and confiscation of 141.717 grams of illegal drugs worth of P963,873.
In the campaign against loose firearms, 49 operations resulted to the apprehension of 17 persons and confiscation of 22 explosives. Meanwhile, 274 firearms were surrendered or recovered.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office had the highest number of arrested wanted persons with 103, followed by the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) with 79.
Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, PRO-6 director, congratulated his police chiefs and unit commanders for actively conducting operations against those who have pending criminal cases.
He said last week’s accomplishments were part of the Philippine National Police’s “Birada Semana” – an initiative to accomplish targets through deliberate and sustained police operations.
For his part, IPPO director Colonel Gilbert Gorero said the seizure of homemade firearms only showed that the PRO-6’s program “Tokhang Kontra Guinadilian nga Pusil” (TKGP) is “very effective.”
The TKGP started in July 2019 after it was re-launched against those who are possessing unlicensed firearms.
“We were able to recover and convince illegal gun holders to surrender their firearms to avoid being arrested through serving a search warrant. The people are now more aware that they should not possess homemade firearms because it is a violation of law,” Gorero said.
Gorero appealed to illegal gun holders to better surrender their weapons.
“They should bring their improvised guns to the nearest police station to avoid criminal charges,” said Gorero./PN