by magnolia_eic | Nov 13, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
WHY is it that we catch only the small fish while the big fish elude?
The trick question that Loay Mayor and LMP President Rosemarie Imboy posed authorities into
enforcing laws on drugs and illegal numbers game elicited varied reactions from members of the
Provincial Peace and Order Council meeting Tuesday.
Camp Dagohoy police chief and PPOC regular member reasoned out that aside from the fact that
cops could not be choosy on whom to apprehend, it is these small bet collectors that are more
visible.
PSSupt. Constantino Barot said illegal numbers game financiers have become so discreet and would
usually go great lengths to make sure no overt evidence links them to the operations.
Meanwhile, at the Talakayan Sa Isyung Pulis held in Clarin the following day, police officers in the
town admit that the fact that local cops are already identified by the operators or pushers, it makes it
doubly hard to get them into doing something stupid.
The issue resurfaced as the public has noted the resurgence of swertres, one that pushed people to
believe that indeed, the cessation a usual happening when a new provincial director wants to make
his presence felt.
PSSUpt. Baro however insisted that he has continued to issue orders to keep the town police
elements in constant operations to deny swertres workers from gaining the usual confidence.
Just keep the pressure and the people will know that we are on an honest to goodness campaign to
discourage those people involved to continue their operation, he said in a talk.
Even Clarin Mayor Allen Rey Piezas has to admit that swertres has resurged in Clarin.
Clarin, he said was one of the 22 Bohol towns which earlier signed a declaration of their being
swertres free, a document signed by the mayor, local government operations officer and in some
towns, including representatives from the church.
When he noticed the resurgence of the gambling in his town, he accordingly called his police chief to
give the mandate anew to keep the illegal numbers game off the town.
Many people said that the illegal operations of swertres hinge on three persons, the mayor, the chief
of police and the operator himself. (racPIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Oct 17, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
LOCAL police authorities have issued warnings against people who own improvised “thinner” guns as
these are now considered deadly weapons.
At the recent Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis, PSInspector Ramoncillo Sawan said Camp Dagohoy has
started confiscating improvised polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe barrel guns using compressed gas and
toy marble as projectiles.
We have run tests with these improvides guns and we agree that with its capacity to get its marble
projectile through a 1.4 inch thick plywood placed at a specific distance could ve bery fatal to
humans, police inspector Sawan said.
Bohol Provincial Police Commander, Pssupt Constantino Barot added that his tests also confirmed
that the weapon is fatal as it could deal a substantial damage to a banana trunk, which he pointed
out, is denser than a human body.
Police authorities also shared that several people use the improvised gun to scare off cattle and
livestock straying into their personal properties, but in the proactive side of things, keeping these
guns off would be pre-emptive against future crimes.
In the election season and with the implementation of the gun ban, the same improvised thinner
guns are outlawed.
It’s a simple contraption, explains a police officer after the TSIP forum.
“All you need to to is store the right amount of gas in a collecting chamber, often a plastic bottle
container and put in a gas exhaust vent that you channel to the PVC barrel,” he explained.
It’s sometimes called “thinner gun” because many would use the highly volatile lacqueer
thinner or lighter fluid into the pressure container to produce the powerful compressed gas.
“With the gas collected in the container, all you need is a spark for the gas to ignite and push its way
into the barrel, releasing the pressure that pushes the marble at incredible speed off the tightfitted
barrel.”
A simple lighter igniter, which can be taken from a disposable lighter works as improvised gun igniter
which produced the spark to ignite the compressed gas and you have a boom, he said as he gingerly
showed the gun operation to the media.
When that ignition happen, the last thing you would want to be is at the wrong end of the barrel.
(racPIABohol)
by magnolia_eic | Aug 14, 2010 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita
SNIFFING dogs, yes. But drug sniffing askals, why not?
Noting that an askal (asong kalye) at Camp Dagohoy has become his daily companion in his early morning conditioning runs, Bohol’s top cop said, perhaps training a native dog to sniff out drugs and contraband goods may work out.
If, without asking the dog to get after me, he regularly follows during my morning runs, then it shows that by training, the native stray dog can easily cope up with the routines.
Himself feeling the concern on the proliferation of illegal drugs that could only pass through the ports from Cebu, PSSupt Rodolfo Llorca said Bohol may be in dire need of drug sniffing dogs to weed out these contraband items being shipped to Bohol.
But knowing the staggering costs of acquiring imported dogs, keeping their food allocations and paying for their training and trainors, Llorca said he would like to know if training askals would be just as effective.
Llorca told the media during the Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis last Wednesday at the Camp Dagohoy that as a metro drug buster, he recalled the indispensability of sniffing dogs to hunt for drugs that may be easy to stash.
Once, he said his men were not able to apprehend the suspect who inserted sachets of drugs in her underwear absent a search warrant.
But with the succeeding raid, and with a sniffing dog in tow, police were able to confiscate the drugs as the courier knew the dog would just be as relentless as stripping her underwear off.
Llorca stressed that the presence of sniffing dogs at the ports of entry would be a big crime deterrence and would easily cut the technicality of search warrants that could not be had just as fast.
Dogs have an unusually keen sense of smell that as soon as they distinguish the scent of the item to be searched, from bombs to drugs, they could be relentless until they can find the item sough after.
Over this, a more thorough study on the feasibility of using native dogs as sniffers over German shepherds, Labradors and St. Bernands may prove a better bargain for Bohol.
Rather than seeing the problem of stray dogs as causes of too many road accidents and the spread of rabies, using them as sniffing dogs may increase their use and would allow them to be truly worth the monicker as man’s best friend. (rac/PIABohol)
