KALIBO, Aklan – Within two months, the modern three-storey Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO) building will soon rise inside Camp Pastor C. Martelino in Barangay New Buswang.

Aklan police director Senior Supt. Clarence Guinto said the R8.9 million building is 65 percent completed. Bacolod-based contractor Micro-Asia Builders Construction started the project on February 23, 2009.

Guinto said the provincial government through Gov. Carlito Marquez and Rep. Florencio Miraflores also committed to help complete the new building that will house the administrative, investigation and personnel divisions of the APPO.

Camp Pastor C. Martelino, home of the 600-strong APPO, is also envisioned to become a tourist destination. It was named after the late Colonel Martelino, who was the first Filipino superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy and chief of staff of the Army’s 31st Infantry Division during World War II.

He was killed in 1945 in Fort Santiago. In 2006, the National Historical Institute unveiled a historical marker inside the APPO to honor his heroics and martyrdom.

Guinto said tourists bound for the famous Boracay Island should also visit the Aklan police headquarters and the nearby multi-awarded Kalibo Eco-Bakhawan in Barangay New Buswang.