Crimes during MassKara drop by 89 cases

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) only recorded 61 incidents with zero major incidents in all festival sites during the 23-day celebration of the 43rd MassKara Festival here.

It is significantly lower by 89 cases compared to 150 festival and non-festival related crimes recorded in 2019.

Thus, Police Colonel Thomas Joseph Martir, BCPO director, considered this year’s festivity as generally peaceful and successful.

Martir noted that the whole of nation approach involving other government agencies deployed to major events made the festivity peaceful and orderly.

The security preparations and the deployment of police personnel with BCPO force multipliers also proved effective in all of the festival venues, he said.

Councilor Psyche Marie Sy, chairpeson of the Committee on Peace and Order, expressed her gratitude to all the BCPO personnel and the augmentation personnel of Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 for the overwhelming success of the MassKara Festival which concluded on Oct. 23.

Sy, along with Police Brigadier General Leo Francisco, PRO-6 director, awarded the Medalya ng Kasanayan or the Philippine National Police (PNP) Efficiency Medal to Martir as commander of Site Task Group (STG) MassKara; Police Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Prangan, deputy city director for administration as Site Sub-Task Group (SSTG) commander for Security; and Police Lieutenant Colonel David Cachumbo Jr., deputy city director for operations as SSTG commander for peace and order.

Force multipliers and government agencies were also recognized for their contribution in the success of the festivity.

More than 2,000 security forces were deployed during the festivity which ran from Oct. 1 to 23.

In his message, Francisco urged the police officers to continue with their daily routine not only during special deployment.

I’m sure that you will continue to contribute greatly in the improvement of the safety of the general public, he said.