IPPO credits drop in crime volume to community support, dedication of cops

SUPPORT of the community and dedication of police personnel in performing their mandates are among the reasons why the crime volume of the province dropped by eight percent, the director of the Ifugao Provincial Police Office (IPPO) said. PPO Director Colonel David Mariano presented during the Peace and Order Council meeting held in Lamut town that from January to October 2019, the IPPO recorded 279 crimes as compared to 303 for the same period last year.

For the total crime volume distribution per municipality, Lamut town registered the highest with 66, followed by Alfonso Lista-50; Lagawe-47; Kiangan-43; Banaue26; Hingyon-14; Aguinaldo-12; Mayoyao7; Asipulo-6 and Banaue and Hungduan4 each.

For index crime distribution, rape and physical injury are the top two while vehicular traffic accident with 113 leads for non-index crimes.

The IPPO is bent in enforcing activities to further reduce crimes like strictly enforcing curfew hour, conduct of nightly mobile and foot patrols and simultaneous checkpoints, one-time-bigtime operations and the Operation Plan (OPLAN) – “Pani-o.”

Oplan Pani-o is the IPPO’s initiative to address the rising rape incidence in the province whereby police officers will hold house to house visits for the purpose of conducting anti-rape information advocacy. To date , a total of 2,646 households were already visited.

The police provincial director also disclosed that other measures to strengthen the partnership between the community and the police are being undertaken to enhance peace and development in the province.