SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan – The Police Regional Office I (PRO1) was recently adjudged as the top performer so far among 17 police regional offices throughout the country in the implementation of guidelines for project HOPE (Honest Orderly and Peaceful Election).

Police Regional Director Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, speaking during the program “Talakayan sa Isyung Police (TSIP) here, said PRO 1 topped in the scoreboard of the Election Monitoring Action Center (EMAC) at the PNP national headquarters as gleaned from its performance from January 14 (start of the election period) to March 1.

Bataoil said this was based on the number of checkpoint established number of raids and searches conducted on suspected criminal lairs or hideouts of criminal elements and in terms of number of loose firearms confiscated.

As of March 1, PRO 1 confiscated a total of 59 firearms in various police operations, the highest as compared to the accomplishments registered for the same period by each of the 16 other police regional offices throughout the country.

The owners of these firearms were charted in various courts with violation of the Commission on Elections gun ban, among others.

Of the number, four are high-caliber firearms, all M16 armalite rifles, recovered as a result of follow up operations in the expansion area of the communist Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB) in the hinterlands of La Union.

In that operation, the top RHB leader for Pangasinan and Zambales area, Domingo Tarectecan, and his close aide, also a ranking rebel leader, were arrested.

Bataoil said with that operation, the PNP stopped the rebels from enforcing its permit-for-free to candidates campaigning in insurgency affected areas of the Ilocos region.

As gleaned from the report of PRO1, most of the confiscated firearms came from Pangasinan, the biggest and most populous province in the entire Ilocos.

But Pangasinan Police Director Isagani Nerez explained that although most of the confiscated loose firearms came from his province, this was only a manifestation “of our active and aggressive police service.”

“We are doing our jobs well. We will continue with our pro-active program to make the coming elections peaceful and orderly,” Nerez said.

He said being the biggest province in the entire region one, both in area and population, Pangsinan has many diverse activities and diverse culture, thus it was really expected that the province will top in that kind of statistics.

In the same forum, Chief Superintendent Bataoil said that per an order of the PNP national headquarters, there shall be at least one checkpoint in every town or city but there shall be more than one if necessary.

He clarified that police checkpoint as well as application of search warrants on known places of armed caches, are a part of police intervention.

One checkpoint per municipality or more if necessary is part of active policing system, Bataoil said. (PNA)