Pampanga holds peace council meet

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda disclosed on Monday that a Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) meeting was held for the first quarter of the year at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center last week.

Pineda led the PPOC meeting along with officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government led by director Myrvi Fabia, Pampanga Police Provincial Office director PCol. Robin Sarmiento and other officials and discussed the illegal drug situation and barangay drug-clearing operation in the province.

During the meeting, Sarmiento revealed that the number of drug-cleared barangays in the province has increased since November of last year, citing that only six barangays from four towns are left that are still not declared as drug-cleared.

He added that they are already in talks with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to prioritize these areas for deliberation, citing that once these six barangays are declared drug-cleared, the number of drug-cleared towns will increase by four.

The police official said that theft, robbery, and rape are the foremost-recorded crimes happening in the province. Theft and robbery usually happens in commercial establishments, he said, adding that these areas should have security guards and CCTV.

“That is why we urged the board to amend the existing ordinance to increase the specs of CCTV so that when police investigate a crime, they should have high-quality footages as evidence from those CCTV,” Sarmiento said.

He added that the usual resolution that most low quality CCTV have is two megapixels that can’t be enhanced by their crime laboratory.

But the top provincial cop assured that the crime incidents in the province has decreased since last year, citing that this is due to a more effective crime prevention.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Governmentand the PDEA awarded Pampanga with the 2021 NationalAnti-DrugAbuse Council Performance Award for the provincial government’s continuous efforts in fighting illegal drugs in the area, adding that this is also due to the fact that the province garnered 88 functionality points during the 2019 ADAC Performance Audit.