METRO GAINS IN WAR ON DRUGS, CRIMES CITED

National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) chief Deputy Director
General Reynaldo V. Velasco yesterday said that the Metro Manila
police have gained headway in the war against crimes, particularly
against drugs, carnaping, and terrorism, as he marked his first year
as chief of the police in the country's premier region.

In a report to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General
Hermogenes Ebdane, Velasco said the force now has a 94.17 percent
overall index crime solution efficiency and a 97.38 percent non-index
crime solution efficiency or a total of 9,090 cases solved by the
police in the capital.

"The NCRPO neutralized no less than nine terrorist groups that
included a team of NPA (New People"s Army) hit men, cashiered
soldiers, Mindanao terror groups, and raided and confiscated caches of
explosives, timing devices, fuses and firearms," Velasco said.

He said that the NCRPO scored impressively also in the war against
illegal drugs, accounting for P3.9 billion - or 80 percent - of the
total P5-billion drug haul reported by the Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency (PDEA) for the period.

"A total of 11,275 raids and buy-bust operations led to the arrest of
11,511 suspects, the filing of 7,710 cases in court, and the
confiscation of various illicit drugs and raw materials worth about P4
billion and the dismantling of three shabu laboratories in Valenzuela,