Editorial: Challenge to residents

ANOTHER woman is dead, a therapist cum part-time fitness instructor who has befriended many. Cheryll Gay Grafilo was stabbed several times by a group of men who we are made to believe did so to save one of the suspect's children from dengue.

Her death leaves another hole in our hearts, as we have to face the fact that we can never kill off every criminal, much as we would have wished this to happen.

One of the suspects is dead, but somehow, that doesn't bring much justice to a young productive life snuffed out just like that as compared to the life of the accused. There is more to justice than just the death of an accused. By now, we should know that.

For those who did not know her personally, do we even remember the name of the nurse who was shot dead by a robber along Dacudao Street one bright day in February this year? Just to remind you, she was Marjorie Kwan, and her family and friends still feel her loss. To the general public, however, she is now but a vague memory. A victim to a whim, misguided and evil.

What is this leading to?

We can blame the police for not being where these women were. We can blame the city for not installing street lights in every "eskinita" and main thoroughfare. We can blame the barangay tanods for not patrolling the areas under the bright noon sun and into the dark dawn.

But after blaming everyone, we must come to realize that for our huge city to remain safe for all, we have to secure it ourselves. We have to come together as a community to put up the streetlights we would want to have. We have to come together to support our barangay tanods' needs. We have to be on the lookout for each other's safety. But most of all, we have to keep a keen ear out for shouts of distress.

Yes, it will be scary to venture out of one's house before the break of dawn when we hear a woman shouting. But we all have easy access to our cellphones and all it takes is to dial for assistance. It is even stupid to venture out alone in the dark when you hear a scream, but you can always sit down with your neighbors to discuss how to create a ruckus, as a community, as neighbors, when such happens.

We can no longer deny the dizzying pace our city is growing, and with it will always come the ills of urbanization - crimes in all forms.

We have lived in denial and in relative security for a long time. We only need to watch the national television news to see what is going on in Quezon City, in Manila, in Makati, in the whole of Cebu Island. Then let us do some math and realize that our city, which is fast growing, is 15 times bigger than Quezon City, 63 times bigger than Manila, 89 times bigger than Makati, and that half of the Cebu Province, new and old cities included, can fit into our city.

There are tons of things and stuff that we can be proud of to be in a city this big, but there is also a corresponding humongous responsibility on each and every resident to ensure the security of such a city.