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Peace and order in Abra normalizes — PNP

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (July 26) — Cordillera Police Director Chief Supt. Noe Wong claims that crime incidence in Abra province had decreased by 32.43% with only 50 recorded incidents on the 2nd quarter of 2005 compared to 74 cases during the 1st quarter when all 527 policemen in the province were re-deployed to different provinces in the Cordillera.

Wong said that the operations of the Abra police has improved, especially on its enforcement of Oplan Bakal, the PNP’s campaign against loose firearms and private armed groups. He cited that for the 2nd quarter of 2005, 65 loose firearms were seized, indicating a 4.62% increase compared to the 1st quarter of the same year. The police director explained that such an improvement in the peace and order situation in Abra was a direct result of Oplan Balasa, which redeployed all the police personnel in the province that earlier were tagged as “ineffective” because they were reportedly taking sides with the warning political factions in the province.

Wong said that despite complaints concerning economic displacement of police personnel, the program, initiated by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Angelo Reyes, yielded positive results.

Back home

Meanwhile, Wong announced that 54 members of the Abra police force who were re-assigned in different posts since March have already returned home, which is the 1st phase of a four-phased program. The parameters were formulated and recommended by the Technical Working Group of the Provincial Evaluation Committee for the return of affected Abra PNP uniformed personnel to their former units vis-à-vis the peace & order situation in the area.

These were endorsed by the Regional Evaluation Panel to the Mediation Group at the national level headed by Reyes. Wong bared that the 1st group who returns comprise those who have served less than six months since the enforcement of Oplan Balasa, the 2nd group will comprise those who served for six months but less than a year, and the 3rd or last group will comprise those who served for a year and up.

Earlier, re-deployed Abra policemen complained of economic and social displacement as result of Reyes’ order. They claimed that the violence in the province was not their making but of the warring political warlords in the province who allegedly enlist hired goons.

Higher authorities however remained pat on their tact to temporarily re-assign all policemen in the province even as Gov. Vicente Valera and majority of the town mayors in the province supported the move as it was “temporary” to ease the tension there. # Ace Allegre for NORDIS

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