Be transparent and apolitical, new police exec told

BAGUIO City Police Office (BCPO) director Senior Superintendent Jesus Cambay was recently given a tall order by the Philippine National Police and city officials on his first day work.

Police Regional Office Cordillera director Chief Superintendent Benjamin Magalong called on Cambay to be a true leader to the BCPO as he challenged the city’s top cop to surround himself with people of good influence and improve the city’s problems on rising cases of crimes against property, particularly theft and robbery, traffic, illegal gambling and crime data reporting.

He told Cambay to protect the interest of the PNP instead of protecting the interests of politicians.

“Serve the people of Baguio as you owe them your position. Exercise transparency by engaging the political leaders and civil society groups. Listen to them,” Magalong said.

He also told Cambay to pursue the PNP’s integrated transformation program and maintain the strategic leadership started by PRO-Cordillera with the use of innovations in law enforcement.

This include the GIS-based crime mapping, crime information and technology infrastructure and system, client satisfaction surveys, community and barangay engagements, improved search and rescue capacity, and updated  criminal database.

This as the BCPO faces allegations of crime data manipulation and unreported crimes which Magalong said have been discovered by the Police Regional Office for the period of January to July this year.

He said the BCPO should be able to ensure all crimes are reported to the public as recent validation of their office showed more than 2,000 crimes were left unreported since last year.

“Address the increasing robbery and theft cases. We have to admit malaki ang pagtaas ng cases na ito sa Baguio. We have to neutralize crime groups and syndicates to aggressively pursue them without let-up,” he said.

He also told Cambay to report the true data to the mayor to have a good programs saying “no good programs are made if it is based on false or wrong data.”

“The worse offense of a police department is to deceive the public. Let us be transparent about our data,” he added.

Lastly, the regional director challenged the new city top cop to intensify operations against all forms of illegal gambling not only card games but also jueteng, which remains existent in the city up to this day.

“Focus on jueteng. I want more cases to be filed against jueteng collectors and gambling lords that it will cease to exist by November,” he dared the new police chief.

Cambay, meanwhile, took the challenge of the regional director but stressed it is not in his character to work on deadlines but maintained he will keep in mind that the people of Baguio will be his motivation in implementing programs such as the BCPO Roadmap in the next few years to solve problems on rising criminality, environmental degradation and traffic.

“We will enforce the law not just on illegal gambling but all kinds of crimes. Dapat aggressive ang operations versus illegal gambling. Baguio should be a safer place to live, visit, study and make a living,” he said.

Meanwhile, on allegations of unreported crimes, Mayor Mauricio Domogan said it is true that there is a need for correct data reporting but stressed this should be within the PNP to improve.

“Perform your functions, do not side with us politicians,” he emphasized as the 2013 elections nears.

On reports of a continued thriving illegal gambling industry in the city particularly jueteng, the mayor said with the creation of Task Force Jupiter they were already able to apprehend several individuals involved in illegal gambling.

“It is possible to stop jueteng draws in the city. But you cannot stop it if the draws are conducted outside the city,” he said.

Continued patronage of illegal numbers game, he stressed, remains rampant in the city as long as the attitude of the people remain unchanged.