By Martin A. Sadongdong
Eight-hundred ninety-five persons were arrested while 6,109 firearms, bladed weapons, explosives, and ammunition were seized, recovered, or surrendered to authorities during the conduct of operations related to the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14, the Philippine National Police bared yesterday.
A report from the PNP National Election Monitoring Action Center released by the Public Information Office said the data was recorded from April 14 or the start of the election period and gun ban to May 3.
The National Capital Region Police Office recorded the most number of arrested persons with 245 in various operations which include checkpoints, police patrol and response, service of search and arrest warrants, buy-busts, and armed encounters in “Oplan: Sita,” “Oplan: Galugad,” and “Oplan: Bakal.”
The NCRPO was followed by the PRO 4-A or the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) police office with 130; Central Visayas, (PRO 7) 79; Central Luzon (PRO-3), 64; and Ilocos (PRO 1), 53.
Of those arrested, 835 of them are civilians, 12 were government elected officials, six were cops, and five were soldiers.
Seven suspected members of threat groups from the Davao region (PRO 11) and three members of private armed groups in Western Mindanao (PRO 9) and Bicol (PRO 5) were also nabbed by the police.
