Abra shootings doubled in 2024

BAGUIO CITY (January 2, 2025) – Noting a doubled frequency of shooting incidents in Abra in 2024, newly installed Abra police director Col. Gilbert Fati-ig vowed tighter security measures this 2025.

The number of recorded shooting incidents from January to December 29, 2024 in the province reached 40, most occurring at the province's capital town of Bangued (13 incidents).

No numbers of victims were however provided by the Abra police.

Fati-ig also noted that only six from the 27 towns in the province Abra have no recorded shooting incidents in the past year.

The Abra police however linked most of the cases to personal quarrels fueled by too much alcohol among the protagonists and antagonists.

Fati-ig said he has instructed all the units of the provincial police to intensify visibility, mobile and foot patrol to thwart shootings and to institute more check points because according to him, most of the suspects were on motorcycles and bigger vehicles.

Alarmed of the numbers of shootings reported by the police, La Paz town mayor and League of Mayors of the Philippines (LMP) National President JB Bernos said shootings and all other forms of violence in Abra “must be put to a stop”.  To achieve this, he said, “police visibility is very important”. 

Bernos, also the president of the partylist group Solid North, actively advocating progress in the grassroots via robust tourism invoked, “the cooperation of all of the members of the community as a big factor in ending (these senseless violence).”