18/08/2026
One of our Board of Trustees members, Lakan Byron F. Allatog '01, Auditor, PNPAAAI.
Allatog’s first 100 days: Tawi-Tawi shootings down, police operations up
By Mia Magdalena Fokno
August 17, 2026
Fewer shootings, more fi****ms taken off the streets, and intensified anti-drug operations marked the first 100 days of Police Colonel Byron Filog Allatog as Tawi-Tawi police provincial director, as the island province pushed a policing strategy built around border security, intelligence, and community engagement.
From May to July 2026, Tawi-Tawi recorded only one shooting incident, down from 11 during the same three-month period in 2025.
At the same time, the Tawi-Tawi Police Provincial Office reported 53 illegal fi****ms confiscated or surrendered and 61 positive anti-illegal drug operations during the period covered by its first-100-days presentation.
Allatog’s first 100 days also saw the provincial police rank first for three consecutive months in the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region’s Unit Performance Evaluation Rating, or UPER, covering May, June, and July.
Tawi-Tawi topped the police units of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Basilan, and Cotabato City during the three-month stretch.
The first-100-days report framed the gains around a broader shift in policing, from what TTPPO described as largely traditional and reactive law enforcement toward a more proactive, intelligence-driven, community-centered, and maritime-focused approach under its “Border Assurance” strategy.
At the center of that direction is the Local Anti-Criminality Action Plan 2026 & Beyond, formally titled Securing the Southern Gateway 2026 & Beyond: An Intelligence-Driven, Community-Centered Policing Strategy for Trade, Tourism, Environmental Protection, and Human Security in Tawi-Tawi.
The Provincial Peace and Order Council approved the plan on July 23, strengthening it as a framework for coordinated peace-and-order efforts that Tawi-Tawi’s 11 municipal peace and order councils may adapt to their own jurisdictions.
The strategy treats Tawi-Tawi not only as the country’s southernmost frontier but also as an emerging gateway to the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area, or BIMP-EAGA, where security has direct implications for trade, tourism, fisheries, investment, and maritime connectivity.
“Police do not build the economy, but police help create the conditions in which an economy can grow,” Allatog wrote in his first-100-days report.
The crime figures formed the most visible part of the first 100 days.
Police said 53 illegal fi****ms were confiscated or surrendered, 10 more than the 43 recorded during the first four months of 2026, or an increase of about 23 percent.
TTPPO also conducted 61 positive anti-illegal drug operations, 15 more than the 46 recorded during the first four months of the year, or about a 33-percent increase.
The reporting periods, however, are not identical. The fi****ms and anti-drug charts run through Aug. 15, while the comparison on shooting incidents covers May to July.
For shootings, police data showed five incidents in May 2025, three in June, and three in July. In 2026, one was recorded in May and none in June and July.
That brought the three-month total down from 11 to one.
TTPPO’s UPER performance also improved over the period. It posted a rating of 80.881, or “Very Satisfactory,” in May, before rising to 88.920 in June and 89.413 in July, both rated “Outstanding.”
UPER is an internal PNP performance evaluation that measures areas including law enforcement, crime prevention and solution, personnel and administration, discipline, compliance, and community engagement.
For Tawi-Tawi, however, Allatog’s strategy goes beyond land-based policing.
The Provincial Peace and Order Council has endorsed the proposed reactivation of the 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Company in Sapa-Sapa and a separate proposal to provide water mobility capability to all 11 municipal police stations.
The plan calls for 11 water assets, including speedboats, to improve police response in coastal and maritime communities, humanitarian operations, marine resource protection, and law enforcement at sea.
TTPPO also introduced Project PATROL, which uses GPS-enabled communication and monitoring to organize police deployment around schools, tourism areas, nighttime patrols, coastal communities, and critical incidents.
The first 100 days show stronger operational numbers and a sharp drop in reported shootings, but TTPPO itself acknowledged that the harder task is sustaining the gains.
The command said the next challenge is to institutionalize the strategy, strengthen maritime and maneuver capabilities, maintain operational performance, deepen partnerships, and ensure that policing continues to support the province’s larger peace and development goals.
Photos by TPPO.
