The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) on Monday cited the role of watchmen or the barangay peace and security officers (BPSO) here in reducing crime incidents in the communities.
Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy chief for operations, said the new director of the Police Regional Office PRO-7 (Central Visayas), Brig. Gen. Roque Eduardo Vega, has required the 12 police stations in the city to reduce their crime volume by 30 percent.
“In Cebu City, supposed to be, we have the maximum of 14 incidents on the crime volume per week. But for the week of Oct. 10 to 16, we only have 12 incidents, which is way below the directive of our regional director,” Parilla noted in a press briefing.
He said out of the eight focus crimes (murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, motorcycle theft, and car theft), only three were recorded during the same period – a case of murder, robbery, and 10 theft cases.
All the theft incidents were solved, while a case for the robbery victimizing a condominium resident will be filed using a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage as evidence. Also, the investigation for the murder case is about to be concluded and charges will soon be filed before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.
Parilla attributed the reduction in crime volume to the city government’s program requiring all the BPSOs to help the police.
Each of the 12 chiefs of police stations have to sign a document proving that the BPSOs of the 80 barangays have rendered duty in the police stations.
The BPSOs would not be able to receive their honorarium if the chief of police will not sign their clearance, Parilla said.
He said members of the city police are leading the barangay peace corps in conducting foot patrol and police visibility drills to ensure that peace and order is maintained down to the “purok” or zone level.
The BPSOs also called the barangay “tanod”, are required to render a minimum number of hours in assisting the police, Parilla said.
Prior to this program, village peace officers were not keen on helping the cops in the fight against focus crimes, he noted.
“We will maintain this set up in the fight against focus crimes as the holiday season is nearing and a lot of activities will be held,” Parilla said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
