Friday, October 26, 2007 Must 3 brys. in Cebu City be in list?
THE Cebu City Police Office submitted a list of only four barangays “to be monitored closely” during this Monday’s barangay and youth elections.
That is why CCPO Director Patrocinio Comen-dador will coordinate with the officials from the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) and the Regional Operations and Plans Division (ROPD) to rethink the inclusion of three barangays as areas of concern.
Barangays Ermita, Pasil and Lahug were earlier identified by the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 as among the 62 barangays in the entire province of Cebu seen as areas of concern.
In an interview with reporters yesterday, Comendador said, the three barangays cannot fall under areas of concern because these did not meet the parameters set under the category.
“What we submitted for validation is that there are four barangays in Cebu City that need to be monitored closely. We have to update, to coordinate with the Regional Intelligence Division and the Regional Operations and Plans Division to revalidate the categorization of these barangays,” he said.
Barangay Guadalupe was included in the CCPO list.
Comendador said that although intense political rivalry is present in Guadalupe, Ermita and Pasil, the two other components for a barangay to be categorized as an area of concern were absent.
The two components are the presence of private armed groups and election-related violence in the past.
For Lahug, there is no intense political rivalry but Comendador said it is “the political battleground” between the City Government and the incumbent barangay leader.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos have been at odds with each other since the midterm elections.
De los Santos challenged Osmeña in the May 14 mayoral elections and lost by some 100,000 votes, but won in her barangay.
Osmeña, though, is not surprised that Pasil, Ermita and Lahug were declared as election areas of concern.
He based his judgment on the people living in the area.
“It is a good assessment. They should also consider Barangay Tinago. In Ermita and Pasil, the people there are hotheaded. Even the barangay captain in Lahug is not credible,” the mayor told reporters yesterday.
Osmeña and delos Santos recently tangled again over the boundary dispute between Barangays Lahug and Luz.
After a survey of the establishments, Osmeña made a recommendation favoring Luz in terms of where these establishments should pay barangay taxes.
Meanwhile, Taboan Police Station, where Barangay Pasil belongs, is maintaining its mobile night patrols to immediately address complaints.
These patrols, according to SPO1 Elmer Abelgas, have helped address many complaints of barangay officials last year about thieves and robbers in their areas. (JST/NRC )
