Friday, October 06, 2006 Roperos: Crimes in Metro Cebu By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
IT seems as if there is an orchestrated increase in the number of crimes perpetrated in the city and its environs in the past couple of weeks.
It is rather intriguing the way these insidious deeds are done even in the vicinity of police stations, or in broad daylight, with the perpetrators showing unusual bravado and gumption. The report of two lending shops being held up almost simultaneously is gravely irritating, considering that our city is now supposed to be more secure than ever.
Whoever is behind this, or whatever is the cause of this sudden rise in the number of criminal acts in Metro Cebu, it is putting in bad light the overall efforts to secure the city. Our law enforcers have truly a serious problem before them.
It does make them appear like they have suddenly become helpless in the face of this unusual challenge to their competence, skill and integrity in law enforcement. It seems that the perpetrators are playing ring-around-the-roses on them. I wonder if authorities have realized that the city’s residents are losing their confidence in the police.
“What our law enforcers ought to understand is that most of our people have limits to their patience,” said a friend who teaches social science in one of Cebu City’s universities. “Don’t quote me, but the reason why not many have come out to object to the spate of vigilante killings in the city is that they are considering their survival more than the ill effects of the so-called violations of human rights.”
It should be recalled that during the dying days of 2004, there was a sudden rise in the number of hold-ups and robberies in Cebu City in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year. The crimes have become so blatant it forced Mayor Tomas Osmeña to announce the formation of a Hunter Team from among the sharp shooters of the city’s police corps.
Immediately after the mayor said it, there ensued a series of “murders” of known criminals by unknown armed men. There is no doubting the fact that Mayor Tom’s proposal was quite harsh. It was what, they say, a “supra democratic” solution to a most threatening social condition, although it seemed to be the only hope for inhabitants of the city protect their peace and their lives.
To a society that seeks only a peaceful and quiet environment in which to exist, the solution truly sounds radical and beneath the humanity of Cebuanos, who are bred in faith. For it is “salvaging,” anyway one looks at it.
The point at issue, though, is the way it is happening and the apparent inability of our law enforcers to contain it, much more to arrest the perpetrators. Our citizenry, in trying to assess the current situation, want to go on with their day-to-day survival unafraid and unhindered.
This situation makes many of them look back to vigilante killing as the solution. But it goes against the grain of our democratic way of life, although at the same time, it subscribes to the belief that the citizenry have a right to protect themselves.
