Mayor tells police to step up drive vs. homegrown guns-for-hire

CEBU, Philippines – Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza is urging the police to intensify their drive against gun-for-hire syndicates that may be operating in the city.

Radaza wrote Police Inspector Antonio Detuya, chief of the Intelligence Section of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office the other day to tell him that recent intelligence reports reaching her office indicate that there are now several gun-for-hire syndicates operating in the city as evidenced by a number of suspects caught in relation to several ambush cases in Metro Cebu who are residents of the city.

According to Radaza, these syndicates are actively recruiting and training city residents.

"I fear that if the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office will not take action to nip this concern in the bud, these criminal elements will throw the city into a cauldron of violence and criminality," Radaza said.

Radaza urged Detuya to beef up the police intelligence efforts to go after these criminal elements who wish to set up base in the city.

The city mayor assured Detuya that the city will support the police in this campaign. (FREEMAN)