Thursday, July 05, 2007 Ledesma: Anti-hoodlum Unit: What's in a name? By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
SOME quarters are against the creation of anti-hoodlum unit as proposed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. They argued among others that even the name alone evokes negative impression. On the other hand, City Councilor Angging Librado-Trinidad averred that the creation of the unit will not solve the problem of gangsterism in the City. Well, I don’t know what will. If Angging has a better idea I would suggest she lectures on the Mayor what that is.
I think that the protestation is premature and, pardon me for saying this, a display of naivete’ especially of a certain Alma Doysabas the Tambayan Center advocacy officer of one of the many non-government organization that flaunt their concerns for street children and children at risk.
Since the passage of the stupid Juvenile Justice Welfare law, there has been a perceptible increase of hooliganism in the city. My own house at Ecoland was robbed twice and each time it involves children and possibly assisted by adults because of the modus operandi they use. They gain entry at small apertures where only a child can squeeze through, let the child open the door and ransack your things. Juveniles go scot-free because they are protected by Kiko Pangilinan’s law. The adult partner in the crime can always claim they just happen to be there because the prime suspect who is a juvenile delinquent will not implicate him knowing he cannot not be jailed anyway.
I have not seen as many delinquents roaming our city streets begging in busy traffic waiting to be the next victim to be bumped or ran-over. Rugby boys are back as watch-your-car thugs. In New York you have the so-called “squeegee gang”. Here we have “wipe-your-windshield” boys and girls in every major corner where there are traffic lights. The rise of vagabonds is worrisome. Parking spaces, plazas and dinghy places are being converted into sleeping quarters. They are stoned by the fumes of rugby that they hardly can feel the cold of the night and …sometimes rain.
The anti-hoodlum body might not be able to address all these problems but they can solve most of these growing blights in our city. Tambayan Center cannot. It can only abet it. It needs harsher solutions because we are not only looking at the problems of juvenile crimes here, we are also looking at hardened criminals using juvenile delinquents in their syndicate now that they have the Juvenile Justice Welfare law as their refuge.
If Councilor Angging and Doysabas do not have anything better than what the mayor proposes, they better leave the Mayor alone. Sure, we have summary executions in the past.
But the public is not complaining because the victims are members of drug syndicates, organized crimes and kidnapping. We will not be the most peaceful and livable place in the country if Mayor Duterte were a weakling. But in tough conditions we need tough solutions.
The mayor being the head of the city has to be lion hearted. When the people voted him overwhelmingly that means they are in full accord with what he has been doing. One or two voices of protest does/do not an opposition make. Never mind the name. As far as I am concerned, the more horrific the name the better. Scary? Only the criminals or those criminally inclined will find the name abhorrent.
But then I agree that the city should put up another body or probably strengthen an existing agency to properly address delinquency. If Angging can set aside part of her pork barrel to set up a holding center where these tykes can be housed and professionally supervised then that will be ideal. These kids should be compelled to go to school at government’s expense. The agency should locate the parents of these juvenile offenders and if they can be impleaded in the crime that their children commit then haul them to court.
I just hope that this anti-hoodlum squad will not be composed of policemen who have hoodlum mentality. Since they will be dealing with mostly juvenile elements, they should go through a special training. We have very good cops but we have our own share of rotten apples too. This unit ought to be special in the sense that they will be dealing with suspects who had been victims in their own homes driven to the streets under the care of criminals and shun and hate society because of its indifference.
