By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Batac
City—In time for the general elections in
May, a new officer-in-charge was named for this city’s police force.
Police Supt. Virgilio Pascua
Jr. assumed the OIC post on January 28, 2016. Prior to his assignment here, Mr.
Pascua served in Abra province for three years, and was posted in Mindanao for
12 years.
Elections preparation
IMMEDIATELY buckling down to
work, Mr. Pascua personally visited the Batac election officer Josephine Pascua
to coordinate preparations for the upcoming elections.
The police OIC stressed the
need for a peaceful and orderly conduct of election this coming May. He said
one of the steps he is planning is to post police officers on all polling
precincts here.
Mr. Pascua disclosed that as
of now, Batac is peaceful but he has yet to observe the situation during
election season.
The Batac police and election
office also plan to hold a “Unity Walk” to be participated in by government
officials and election candidates.
New building
A new building for the Batac
police is also forthcoming.
Mr. Pascua announced that the
Batac government, headed by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta and Philippine National
Police acting regional director P/Chief Supt. Ericson Velasquez signed a
memorandum of agreement for a Deed of Donation lately.
Mr. Pascua said that the
city’s counterpart will be the donation of the lot plus additional funding for
the construction of the three-storey building. The rest of the funding will
come from the PNP regional office.
The new building will still
be located at the existing police building just beside the Batac public market.
It will have an approximate area of 1,000 square meters.
Mr. Pascua hopes that the
construction will start soon upon release of the budget and the release of the
land title.
Visit to barangays
Mr. Pascua also announced that he will visit all barangays
regularly for a continuous dialogue with the barangay officials and tanods,
with respect to the peace and order situation.
Relative to this, he also
asked the cooperation of the public to help in the security in the city as the
police cannot patrol the entire city at a one given time.
As the Batac police also
lacks the needed personnel, the OIC said he introduced a new innovation wherein
there will be two shifts for patrol officers daily.
He also scheduled a dialogue
with tricycle associations in the city.
Election officer hopes for peaceful election
Meanwhile, Ms. Balbas is hopeful that election here will again be
peaceful and orderly similar to the 2013 elections. In 2013, both the incumbent
mayor and vice mayor ran unopposed.
For this elections however,
two candidates are vying for the city’s top post. A single candidate is running
for vice mayor.
Ms. Balbas also stressed that
her office’s only concern for now are the tarpaulins that are scattered around
the city. She said she has since asked the police to assist them in
implementing “Oplan Baklas”, a process where they take down election materials
posted in illegal areas.
In Batac, the approved common
poster areas are the area in front of the Ricarte Park facing Washington St.;
the front of the public market; the vacant lot in front of the Batac Cockpit
along the national highway; the “Bagsakan” area along the national highway; barangay
halls and multi-purpose halls in every barangay; and waiting sheds along the
highways.
In addition to this, they
also plan to hold a “Peace Covenant”.
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