Ronnie Puno on Stopping Crime

Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno has underscored the vital role played by ordinary citizens in preventing crime in their respective communities, asserting the Philippine National Police can't actually satisfy its remitted task of keeping up the peace and busting criminal gangs without the full cooperation and assistance of the public it serves.

Puno, also CEO of the National Police Commission ( Napolcom ), declared this is why the DILG is actively supporting the PNP's initiative of forming barangay peacekeeping actions teams ( BPATs ) across the land, which taps members of the community as'force multipliers' in the govt. 's anti-crime campaign.

Citing Cavite as example, Puno said the regardless of the serious gains manufactured by the province in its anti-crime campaign, Cavite's image as an investment center is still tarnished by the problem of illegal drugs in the area.

'The formation of BPATs in the province, which comprise a total of 5,600 members, will help the PNP battle the scourge of illegal drugs and other security concerns in the province,' said Puno in a previous visit to Trece Martires town to visit the oath-taking rites for these new sign ups.

These BPAT volunteers, just like the recruits in other parts of the country, will neither be given firearms nor face off with criminals, he revealed during the Cavite event, as their main task is to act as information'gatherers' who will help the police pinpoint potential security threats in their communities.

In separate events, Puno had earlier sworn in similar volunteers numbering 13,600 in Pangasinan ; 6,500 in Ilocos Norte ; 10,000 in Manila ; and two thousand in Zamboanga del Sur.

'The formation of barangay peacekeeping action groups is one of the priority programs being pushed by the DILG not only in Cavite but in the entire country as well,' Puno said. 'The public and the police should unite and work in cooperation to keep our communities tranquil and safe and create a climate conducive to commercial growth.'

He noted that while Cavite has a high 84.3% crime potency solution rate, 320 or 38% of its 829 barangays remain drug-affected. 'This is the challenge that faces all of you today,' Puno told the Cavite BPAT members. 'This is what you should concentrate on. The BPATs, along with the PNP and the other uniformed services, and the local officers are the ones who the community can depend on to protect them from crime and violence.'

Since 2008, the PNP has conducted 1,031 anti-drug operations ; arrested 1,569 folks ; filed 1,047 drug-related cases ; arranged 7 intelligence workshops ; and seized illegal drugs worth P306 million in the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon ( Calabarzon ) corridor.

Calabarzon is among the Top 5 regions in the country with over 40% of jail inmates who are drug offenders. Of the 26,096 drug offenders arrested nationwide, the area accounts for 12.5 p.c of this total.