ILOILO CITY – Police arrested 138 violators of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections gun ban in Western Visayas from August 28 to November 30.

THE Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) conducts a checkpoint in Jaro, Iloilo City in line with the gun ban in the barangay elections. (Tara Yap)
The Police Regional Office-6 said majority were civilians with 131. Four were security guards, two were off-duty officers of other law enforcement agencies, and one was an off-duty policeman.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office arrested 40 violators, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office, 20; Bacolod City Police Office, 18; Capiz Provincial Police Office, 17; Iloilo City Police Office, 16; Aklan Provincial Police Office, 11; and the Guimaras Provincial Police Office, Antique Police Provincial Office, and Regional Mobile Force Battalion, four each.
Seized from these violators were 110 firearms, 438 ammunition, two explosives, and 48 deadly weapons such as knives and blades.
Police Brig. Gen. Sidney Villaflor, PRO-6 director, said in a statement on Friday, December 1, that the number of gun ban violators in Western Visayas was minimal and only a small percentage of the total nationwide.
Villaflor said the strict implementation of the gun ban and the deployment of policemen for rigid checkpoints averted any major incidents during the BSKE in Western Visayas.