The municipality of Malay in Aklan, which is home to the world-famous Boracay Island, has attained a 100 percent drug-cleared status following continuous and aggressive police operations in the past two years. Police Lt. Col. Don Dicksie De Dios, chief of police of Malay Municipal Police Station, said the aggressive police initiatives, which also resulted in zero major crime incidents in both local and international events in Boracay, came with strategic coordination with local officials and stakeholders to maximize the implementation of peace and order measures not only for residents but especially for local and foreign tourists. ![de dios1.jpeg](https://storage.googleapis.com/mb-mkt-neo-prod-1-uploads/de_dios1_01ed218a5c/de_dios1_01ed218a5c.jpeg) Malay Municipal Police Station Police Lt. Col. Don Dicksie De Dios presents his tour of duty report to the Sangguniang Bayan where he enumerated police gains in maintaining peace and order, especially in the world-famous Boracay Island. The Sangguniang Bayan later approved a motion to make De Dios as an adopted son of Malay in recognition of his peace and order efforts.

“We have been continuously the raising of the competency level of Malay MPS personnel through constant mentoring, decisive approach on crime prevention, uncompromising crime solution initiatives and unyielding efforts on enforcing internal discipline within the ranks,” said Dios during the presentation of his tour of duty report to the Malay Municipal council. “Our goal is to make our municipality a safer place to live, work and do business,” said De Dios. Boosting tourism is one of the major focuses of the Marcos administration to effectively bounce back from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Boracay is one of the top tourist destinations in the country and generates billions of peso income for the local and national government. De Dios said some of the strategies they implemented is the improvement of police facilities as clean and presentable PNP offices and stations leave a good and lasting impression among the tourists; improving mobility requirements and ensuring good firepower capability of the local police force. He said part of the police efforts to improve good working relationships with the local communities is the establishment of the “Pulis sa Barangay” program and the creation of the  Theft and Robbery Section to ensure immediate police response. Earlier, PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr. instructed all police commanders to ensure police response in all calls for police assistance in less than five minutes.  “The municipality also attained 100 percent drug cleared status. Included in the report were notable accomplishments on numerous arrests of wanted persons, service of search warrants, recovery of loose firearms, crackdown on illegal gambling, and huge number of citations issued in regards to the enforcement of municipal ordinances which is more than half of the provincial-wide total,” said De Dios. “A very satisfying result can be pictured out looking into the data that reflects zero major incident on both International and local events held within the Municipality of Malay particularly in the Island of Boracay; same goes with the National and Local celebrations which includes the yuletide season, Ati-atihan Festival, Holy Week, Love Boracay and Security Coverage provided for VIPs coming into the Island,” he added. De Dios, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the Malay Mayor Floribar Bautista and other local officials for assistance to the police needs, which he said, contributed to his program of excellence, efficiency and effectiveness in job performance. For its part, the Sangguniang Bayan of Malay lauded De Dios’ performance as the Chief of Police, which it said, brought a great deal of influence  in shaping public perception for the municipality of Malay, with emphasis on Boracay Island, as a safe place and tourist destination. As a token of appreciation, the Sangguniang Bayan of Malay approved a motion for De Dios to be an adopted son of Malay.

Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2023/5/21/cops-lauded-for-keeping-boracay-safe-for-tourists-malay-attains-100-drug-cleared-status)