Abra province, already a hotbed for incidents of violence especially during election season, has witnessed a doubling of recorded shooting incidents in 2024 compared to the preceding year, according to local police authorities.
Newly installed Abra police chief Colonel Gilbert Fati-ig pledged to increase police visibility and tighten security under his jurisdiction in the province in a bid to stem what is a concerning rise in gun violence in Abra.
Fati-ig said that the shooting incidents have since “doubled” in 2024 from prior 2023, with 40 separate recorded shooting incidents, though Fati-ig declined to reveal the number of casualties and total victims from the incidents.
The biggest chunk of the violence occurred in the capital town of Bangued, where 13 separate shootings occurred throughout 2024. However, the shootings were widespread, with Fati-ig noting that only six out of the 27 towns in the province saw zero incidents.
Fati-ig said he has instructed all the units of the provincial police to intensify visibility, conduct more patrols both on vehicle and on foot to pre-empt shootings, and to establish more check points, citing Abra police data that shows most shooting suspects were on motorcycles and bigger vehicles.
