Butuan City empowers local communities on anti-criminality
By Mariesh F. CeledeΓ±a
BUTUAN CITY - The Philippine National Police - Butuan City Police Office (BCPO) empowered its 86 barangays on anti-criminality through the rollout and implementation of its Barangay Anti-Criminality Action Plan (BACAP).
It also covered police operational activities such as patrolling, Oplan Recoreda, Oplan Disciplina, among others with the help and support of the officials, barangay tanods and the residents.
According to Colonel Rommel D. Villamor, city director BCPO, “The BACAP found its legal premise in Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991. This is a local peace and development initiative of the BCPO that capacitates and engages the grassroots communities in the fight against criminality.”
“The BACAP is effective because as early as the first quarter of this year, we are already reaping positive results of the plan in reducing the crime rate in the city. In the comparative report, a total of 171 peace and order incidents were recorded from January 1 to March 16, 2024, while 159 incidents were recorded from January 1 to March 16, 2025, resulting in a 7.01 percent decrease. This decrease is due to the timely reporting of situations prior to the actual crime by the barangay tanods, and the prompt response of the police officers on the reported cases which are part of the BACAP,” the director said.
He also emphasized that BACAP is designed as a crime prevention tool and stops its commission with the help of first-hand information from the barangay, creating safe streets and spaces for peaceful, orderly and resilient communities.
“We have successful operations, just last week we received information from a resident and a buy bust operation was conducted resulting in the apprehension of 400 grams of shabu and captured two drug pushers in Barangay Holy Redeemer. This is due to the information given by the residents and the barangay tanods. Through BACAP, the city police has received more real-time reporting from the local communities that showed their cooperation and engagement in the program,” added Villamor.
Meanwhile, Florita Montilla, punong barangay of Barangay Diego Silang, expressed support to the BACAP as a partnership between the police and the barangay, saying, “We all want a safe and peaceful barangay but we cannot do this alone. We need to work together. With the help of BACAP, the strong collaboration between the barangay and police, we can make our barangay a better place to live.”
She shared that Diego Silang is one of the barangays of Butuan City with the most populated schools, Butuan Central Elementary School and Agusan National High School. With BACAP, this will address school riots, gang fights and even insurgency recruitment. (MFC/PIA Caraga)
