GENERAL SANTOS CITY, May 22 (PNA) — Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II ordered police units here and other parts of Region 12 to begin the rollout of anti-criminality operation plan or Oplan Lambat-Sibat.
He issued the directive in the wake of the rising unsolved shooting incidents in the city that already reached 30 cases as of Friday.
Roxas said Oplan Lambat-Sibat, which he earlier introduced at the Philippine National Police-National Capital Region (NCR) Police Office, has proven to be an effective measure against criminality, especially in the urban areas.
“We’ve been so far successful in our campaign in NCR and we want it replicated here,” said Roxas, who led the turnover of new patrol jeeps on Friday to municipal police stations in Sarangani and South Cotabato provinces.
Citing their studies, he said about 70 percent of the crimes that happen in the country are perpetrated by the same suspects or involve criminal syndicates.
He said such problem could be effectively addressed by Oplan Lambat-Sibat, which mainly focuses on “deliberate, programmatic and sustained” approach in crime prevention.
The system gives special attention on recurring crimes and the crackdown of criminal syndicates, he said.
Roxas had ordered the creation of tracker teams to ensure that these criminal elements are captured using the “whole of PNP” approach.
He also directed the conduct of a “team by team assessment” to ensure the effectiveness of each teams in pursuing their targets.
“By catching these suspects, we will be able to stop these recurring crimes and deter them from happening in the future,” he said.
In NCR or Metro Manila, he said the PNP was able to cut down by at least two-thirds the number of crime incidents every with the implementation of the system.
From an average of 918 incidents weekly, he said police units were able to reduce it to just around 300.
“The system is very effective so we’re now cascading it to our regions,” he added.(PNA)