BOKOD, Benguet – The Cordillera Regional Development Council (RDC-CAR) and the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC-CAR) conferred to the Provincial Director of the Mountain Province Police Office (MPPO) and the City Director of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) for their exemplary service in making Mountain Province drug-free from January to June this year and for placing sixth of the ten Safety cities in Southeast Asia, respectively.
The plaques of recognition signed by RDC-CAR and RPOC-CR chairman and Baguio City Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, RPOC-CAR vice chairman and Police Regional Office–Cordillera (PRO-COR) regional director Chief Superintendent Rolando Z. Nana and RDC-CAR vice chairperson and National Economic Development Authority–Cordillera (NEDA-CAR) regional director Milagros A. Rimando were awarded to MPPO Provincial Director Senior Superintendent Allen S. Ocden and BCPO City Director Senior Superintendent Ramil L. Saculles for their outstanding and exemplary accomplishments in the delivery of quality services to the public in their areas of jurisdiction.
Earlier, the RDC-CAR and RPOC-CAR recognized the efforts of Ocden and Saculles in the implementation of strategic anti-criminality and peacekeeping initiatives that resulted to the drug-free status of the 145 barangays of Mountain province for a considerable duration and sustaining Baguio city’s achievement as the 6th Safest City in Southeast Asia based on the perception of individuals who have frequented a number of cities in the Southeast Asian region for a number of times.
Ocden expressed his gratitude to the RDC-CAR and RPOC-CAR for recognizing the efforts of the men and women in uniform in curbing and preventing the proliferation of illegal drugs in the different barangays of Mountain Province considering that without the cooperation of the residents and barangay officials, the drug-free status of the barangays could not have been realized.
He assured stakeholders in Mountain Province that the government’s anti-drug, anti-criminality and anti-insurgency campaign will be unrelenting and uncompromising because the reign of peace and order in a certain locality is the basic foundation for development and employment, economic activities and additional sources of livelihood are offshoots of development.
It will be recalled that in February 2017, the PRO-COR conferred to the provinces of Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao and Abra drug-cleared status certifications after all identified drug-affected barangays were cleared of drug suspects among other related factors.
On the other hand, Saculles also expressed his gratitude to the local government and the people of Baguio city for providing the atmosphere of being one of the Safest Cities in Southeast Asia, claiming that there is a need for residents to continue supporting the implementation of the needed interventions that will sustain the city’s identity as one of the Safest Cities that will help boost the overall growth of the local tourism industry.
The accomplishments of the MPPO and BCPO should serve as a motivation of other police units regionwide to excel in their anti-criminality and other peacekeeping initiatives that will ensure the reign of peace and order in the region. By Dexter A. See
