The city continues to gain headway in the implementation of innovations in the implementation of peace and order strategies to sustain its identity as a worthy place to study, work, live and do business.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, in his recent State of the City Address, stated that the peace and order situation in the city significantly improved during the implementation of the Luzonwide lockdown from the middle of March to the end of May last year where the city’s crime rate dropped by an average of as much as 70 percent compared to the same period during the preceding year.
He added that the gains of the city’s peace and order situation continued even during the various levels of community quarantine over the past several months allowing law enforcers to extend to support and assistance in the implementation of stricter border controls in the various quarantine checkpoints around the city to prevent travelers from unnecessarily entering the city without the proper documents required for the purpose.
The city chief executive added the importance of having gained headway in the anti-drug campaign that have improved the city’s performance in the ongoing drug war to achieve the realization of drug-free status among the city’s 128 barangays.
Moreover, he noted that there was zero disturbance and the city jails had been COVID-19 free since the start of the ongoing pandemic.
According to him, 99 percent of the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) had been vaccinated and despite the pandemic, caseloads had been significantly reduced in the different courts due to the implementation of the various decongestions interventions for the benefit of PDLs with light offenses.
He assured the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), the Baguio fire station, the female and male dorms of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), that the city government will continue to provide the said offices with annual assistance for these to be able to effectively and efficiently perform their assigned duties and responsibilities in sustaining the gains of the city’s peace and order initiatives.
The mayor stipulated that the city government remains committed to further improving the peace and order situation in the city amidst the ongoing pandemic to achieve the needed peace and order situation that can contribute to efforts in renewing the growth of the local economy.
He commended the law enforcers for their passion and dedication in discharging their duties and responsibilities as these speak well of how the programs, projects and activities on peace and order being implemented to sustain the earlier gains had placed the city as one of the most peaceful and orderly cities in the country.
The city tapped the experienced BCPO personnel to help in the effective and efficient roll out of the government’s mass vaccination program by being part of the vaccination teams that had been deployed in the mega vaccination sites right in the heart of the city to convince people to be inoculated against the prevalence of the deadly virus. By Dexter A. See
