Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte lauded the security sector for their effectiveness and continuing vigilance against threats to the community.
“We thank and commend the guardians of our safety and security for their continuing vigilance and sustained effectiveness in preventing and controlling the persistent threats of criminality, terrorism and insurgency in our city. They are the men and women who always lose sleep so that soundly, we can,” the lady mayor said during her State of the City Address on Tuesday
She said that Davao City Police Office (DCPO) has reported that in the first semester of 2018, the total crime volume is 2,671 cases consisting of 2,079 non-index crimes and 592 index crimes.
“These numbers are lower compared to the data from the first semester of 2017 by 37.6 percent,” she said.
This decrease was brought about by the conduct of Oplans: bulabog/ counter terrorism-manhunt operations, Oplan: lambat bitag sasakyan/ road clearing operations and other anti-criminality operations.
To augment the DCPO personnel, the number of Police Auxiliary Personnel has been increased by 44 percent this year or from a complement of 910 in 2017 to 1,310 in 2018.
She said that this strategy has resulted in remarkable decrease of street crimes in the city.
Since the implementation of Oplan Sagop Kabataan last November 27, 2017 of the DCPO with the prescribed integration of all the guidelines and procedures on the rescue of minors for a unified law enforcement in addressing issues of children in conflict with the law (CICL) and children at risk (CAR), and out of school youths that are being used to commit crimes, a total of 602 operations were conducted and has 1,717 youth and children from January to June 2018.
From May 2017 to July 2018, there were 530 Oplan Kalinaw operations conducted to do background checks on suspicious individuals that resulted in the arrest of 539 suspects during manhunt operations against persons or fugitives hiding in the communities.
The incidences of theft in the neighborhoods have been rampant this year. This was the reason that the DCPO conceptualized the Oplan Robbery, Akyat-Bahay, Theft and Snatching or (RATS) last June 2018 with positive results.
“With all of DCPO’s programs, I congratulate the men and women of our police force headed by City Director Alexander Tagum for winning the “Best City Police Office” in the country for the year 2018,” she said
Davao City has beefed-up security in all of our entry points—strict protocols for passenger and private vehicles passing thru checkpoints have been in effect.
“While these safety and security precautions certainly cause some personal inconveniences, we have received generally positive feedback on how the checks are being done. I encourage everyone to propagate a mindset of safety and to always be cooperative. Let us bear this little inconvenience if only to ensure that we reach our destinations safe and sound,” she said.
The three additional companies of special Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) active auxiliaries have greatly added to the effectiveness of Task Force (TF) Davao.
The midtown and uptown areas of the city have also been kept in peace thru the efforts of 1003rd Brigade of the Philippine Army.
“The brigade has recorded many successes in their focused combat military operation against the armed insurgents. Hand-in-hand with this is the implementation of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP) that is now proving to be effective in persuading the insurgents to return to the fold of law,” she said.
