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Thursday, December 23, 2004
CH sets bounty for hunters
By Rene H. Martel & Jovy S. Taghoy
Sun.Star Staff Repaorters
For Cebu City policemen, “happy hunting. ”That’s because for “every criminal who is permanently disabled or neutralized,” P10,000 or P20,000 will be handed to them by the City Government.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday promised to give P20,000 to on-duty policemen and half of the amount to those who are not when they capture those committing crimes.
Initially, the Hunter Team that will be created by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will be made up of 16 top shooters in the city’s police force.
They are being identified by former councilor Rogelio Osmeña, president of the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association, said Cebu City Police Chief Melvin Gayotin and Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) Chief Pablo Labra II.
The creation of the elite police group is in response to rising criminality in the city, the most recent of which was the shooting and robbery of fashion designer Jed Sevilla last Sunday.
Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem also said policemen who use their own motorcycles in running after suspects will receive five liters of gasoline a day, which is roughly equivalent to a traveling allowance of P150 a day.
“You can’t fight motorcycle-riding robbers with multicabs. You have to fight them with motorcycles. Policemen should really stop them, chase them. They have to be very aggressive,” he said.
And in case members of the elite team end up facing charges while doing their work, the mayor said City Hall will be “hiring legal services for them.”
Prior to their deployment, however, the team will undergo human rights orientation to ensure that they do not go overboard in their “offensive.”
Osmeña expressed confidence that after the policemen finish the seminars, “they will know exactly when to pull the trigger.”
“We are going to follow the law, but we’re going to walk on the limit,” the mayor said.
That is why, he added, criminals should not give the elite policemen any reason to shoot.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella, committee on laws, ordinances, public accountability and good government chairman, welcomed the mayor’s plan.
He said that as long as the policemen’s actuations are within the bounds of the law, he sees no problem with the creation of the Hunter Team. Labella, a lawyer, was a director of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas before joining politics in 1998.
He praised the mayor for “doing something extraordinary to address the rising criminality in the city.”
The mayor reiterated yesterday that he would rather have policemen in the streets than have them at the stations waiting for alarms.
“I always said the police station is outdated. You cannot gain anything sitting inside an air-conditioned room,” Osmeña said.
The mayor, though, did not categorically say if what he meant was that criminals should be shot dead when he said “permanently disable or neutralize” criminals.
In a press conference, Osmeña said the team’s members will be using the new Nissan Terrano sports utility vehicles (SUVs) City Hall will be renting for P800 per eight-hour shift.
The Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team, on the other hand, will be using motorcycles.
Gayotin explained that while there are already special units like the CIIB, Theft and Robbery Section, Vice Control Section and the Homicide Section that are designated to investigate and run after the criminals, the hunter team, however, will be assigned to high-profile cases that need special attention.
The responsibilities of the new team will also not be taken as duplication of the other special units in the city police, the CCPO chief said.
(December 23, 2004 issue)
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