218 Ilocos cops trained for polls as violence increases: La Union town under PNP control after slays

By Freddie G. Lazaro

TUBAO, La Union – Election-related violence has increased in this town and other parts of the Ilocos Region even as the mayor here has declared Tubao under control by police after five of his constituents were killed separately here and in nearby Agoo town by motorcycle-riding gunmen.

“The peace and order situation now has been improved and controlled by the police because there are already augmentation forces securing our place,” Mayor Dante Garcia saideven as a family of three survived after a drug-crazed tricycle driver entered their house and repeatedly stabbed them here shortly after dawn Tuesday.

Police said the victims – Lea Rulloda, 43, and her daughters Andrea, 15, and Fatima Mae, 12 – were able to identify their attacker as their neighbor, Marlo Dacanay, 30, who was later arrested.

Following the killings, regional police trained 218 policemen who finished a five-day Basic Police Functions Orientation Seminar to them for non-partisan security duties in the duration of the upcoming campaign and election season.

Chief Supt. Franklin Jesus B. Bucayu, Police Regional Office 1 director, cited need for  physical, mental and moral preparedness among police officers for them to be effective in the campaign dubbed “SAFE (Secure and Fair Elections) 2013.”

Bucayu commended the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB), under Senior Supt. Reynaldo G. Biay, for the successful conduct of the training which ended on Nov. 30.

“For sure they will apply their improved adeptness they have just gained and further develop the desirable traits of a professional police officer in every situation they face with emphasis on human rights,” Bucayu said.