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Saturday, January 28, 2006
Editorials: Lapu-Lapu police station’s success
The award given by the Philippine National Police hierarchy to the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station as the country’s Police Station of the Year should be proof enough that the fight against criminality can succeed using traditional law enforcement methods.
Lapu-Lapu city used to be known as a place where criminals prefer to stay, where robberies and other forms of criminality were on the rise and where a number of crimes have remained unsolved.
Worse, the police station had investigators that were considered inept and laughable (remembered the bungled crime scene investigation on the death of judge Martin Ocampo?).
Under the professional and determined leadership of Supt. Louie Oppus, however, personnel of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station have been whipped into fighting form, resulting in its eventually grabbing a national award.
Interestingly, the police station’s accomplishments were achieved at a time when a good number of people were fooled into believing the lie that the only effective method to stem the tide of criminality is by summarily executing suspected criminals.
Oppus even took a swipe at this notion when he partly attributed his police station’s success to its respect of the rights of suspects and criminals even as it strictly enforced the law.
What is ironic there is that the government official who admitted he probably inspired the spate of vigilante-style killings in Cebu City, Mayor Tomas Osmeña, once expressed preference for Oppus to head the Cebu City Police Office.
One can ask then whether the situation in Cebu City would have been different had Oppus given in to Osmeña’s wooing and not wisely decided to stay put in Lapu-Lapu.
‘Murder City’ tag, again
Some officials identified with the tourism sector and the peace and order council in the region have again objected to the use of the tag “Murder City” following the spate of vigilante-style killings in Cebu City.
They even asked those who use the tag to “rectify” it.
What is puzzling there is that while they criticized the use of the tag, they did not come out strongly against the summary executions that have already felled more than a hundred persons—the reason why the idea of “murder city” cropped up—in the first place.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 28, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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