Friday, November 10, 2006
Mayor backs cops despite 176 unsolved killings
CEBU CITY -- Unlike Vice Mayor Michael Rama and some of the city councilors, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he is satisfied with the Cebu City Police Office's (CCPO) performance in the fight against criminality.
"The crime rate has gone down by 19 percent. And I know people report. And the police force was able to solve some major robberies here," he said, adding that ultimately, it is the people who will judge whether the CCPO has made the city safer for them.
Led by Rama, the City Council met with CCPO Acting Director Melvin Gayotin and special unit and station commanders in an executive session last Tuesday, on the continuing summary executions that have ended over 170 lives since late 2004.
Rama, in particular, told Gayotin that he was not happy with their peace and order accomplishment because summary executions continue.
He said the City spent P50 million for the wages of casual employees detailed with the CCPO, equipment and P1,000 in monthly allowances for each policeman, but the command has not made any headway in investigating the vigilante-style killings.
But on Thursday, the mayor said it does not concern him whether or not criminals are in danger here in the city. "I don't care about the criminals," he added.
He sees nothing wrong with the plan to raise P500,000 for the capture of the so-called vigilantes who have so far killed 176, most of them ex-convicts or suspected criminals, since December 2004.
He warned, though, that the City Council should take a "balanced approach" by having the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) clean up its ranks of lawyers whom he considers to be helping the criminals.
"If they want us to get all the vigilantes, maybe we can. But we will make all the criminals happy," Osmeña told a press conference last Wednesday.
The idea of putting up a bounty for the vigilantes surfaced in the executive session between council members and police officials.
Since the rash of killings has been blamed on so-called vigilantes, Gayotin said it is time to consider these high-profile crimes and have these handled by special units.
After being questioned again during the City Council's regular session last Wednesday, Gayotin pointed out to reporters that the police officials were not the ones who labeled the killers as vigilantes.
In their crime statistics, the vigilante-style killings are classified among the murder and homicide incidents.
"We are the most multi-tasked personnel. We are trying our very best to do everything, to solve the problem," he said Thursday.
Gayotin said that last Tuesday, Superintendent Pablo Labra II already explained why they had difficulty in solving most of the killings.
"The term vigilantes did not come from us. Though there are similarities in the style, some of the killings were business-related and others were for revenge. Bisag gamay ra atong na-solve ana, naa sad ta'y nahimo (We may have solved only a few of these case, but we have done something about them)," Gayotin said.
Gayotin added that he has constantly been submitting reports on the attacks.
"What can we do if we have no witnesses? Even the families of the victims, even those who survived attempts, refuse to cooperate with us," the police chief explained.
While he acknowledged that they gathered the physical evidence from crime scenes, he said the equipment of the Regional Crime Laboratory is not advanced enough that it could immediately identify the killers.
He said they still needed sworn testimonies to strengthen a case.
As for the action plans, Gayotin said these were centralized and issued by Camp Crame. The duty of the officers at the local level is to implement the master plans as effectively as possible, in connection with the community's needs.
"I believe I have already suggested how to control crime. I have disseminated these to Oplan Pakigsandurot," he said, referring to a community-based anti-crime program in the city. (RHM/MEA of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (November 10, 2006 issue)
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