CEBU CITY – Short, sweet, and highly productive.
This was how the Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO-7) described the stint of outgoing regional director Brig. Gen. Jerry Bearis.
Bearis was relieved as PRO-7 director effective March 16 and was moved to the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group, a highly trained unit securing all airports in the country against terrorism and criminality.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Abellada Aberin has been named as the new PRO-7 chief. The formal turnover ceremony is reportedly scheduled on Monday, March 20.
In a statement released by the PRO-7 Public Information Office, Bearis led the Central Visayas police for two months and 25 days with an Israeli-inspired brand of policing strategy.
This strategy immediately resulted in the significant decrease of crimes and increase in solution efficiency, highlighted by his highly accurate anti-drug operational model, the PRO-7 said.
“During his term from Dec. 19, 2022 to March 17, 2023, the PRO-7 evidently displayed major operational accomplishments through in-depth and intelligence-based operations which resulted in the total confiscation of P254.3-million worth of drugs with 1,980 drug personalities arrested,” the PRO-7 said.
Under Bearis’ watch, 2,345 wanted persons were arrested, 1,145 unlicensed firearms and 47 explosives were seized, and 181 persons were also apprehended for illegal possession of firearms.
As PRO-7 chief, Bearis established the region’s Center for Public Safety Analysis which “institutionalized the application of in-depth intelligence, analysis, and foresight.”
“He also introduced the very responsive Urban and Rural Police Patrolling, implementation of Drone Patrolling, initiatives which are aimed at making a police force which can be seen, heard, and felt in all corners across the region,” the PRO-7 added.
Bearis also led the creation of the Anti-Illegal Drug Advocates (AIDA) which tapped former drug users to help the government in its information drive against the use of illegal drugs.
As he left PRO-7, Bearis’ last marching order was for PRO-7 personnel to give the same loyalty and commitment to Aberin, expressing confident that the new chief of the Region 7 police will put the safety and security of Central Visayas a top priority.