Crime wave to welcome Noynoy

MANILA, Philippines - There has been a spate of killings all over the country with rebel groups abducting and executing hapless civilians particularly in Mindanao. And now here comes this latest crime wave with the killing of another journalist (the third in just one week), the attack on First Daughter Luli Arroyo’s

balikbayan

brother-in-law Jorge Bernas by carjackers, and the cold blooded murder of a German hotel executive in Makati last Friday. All these in just two weeks.

Just recently, the Philippine National Police proudly disclosed that the crime rate went down by 12 percent due to the election gun ban. But if you really look deep into it, the common perception is that the lowered rate has more to do with election-related criminal activities and does not necessarily reflect the overall situation in Metro Manila and the entire country.

After all, one only has to browse through tabloids or open the metro pages of broadsheets to read about holdups, robberies, break-ins, hijackings and shootings to see that crimes continue to occur nonstop everywhere, with the wide perception that crime is in fact increasing. In Zamboanga City, a 60-year-old businessman named Vicente Barrios was on board a motorized banca when he was abducted by five gunmen in two high-speed boats. The abduction came just a day after a Swiss-born Filipino businessman was rescued after almost two months in captivity. The 72-year-old Charles Reith was abducted in his beachfront home in Zamboanga City by men wearing police uniforms, although authorities say the kidnappers were Abu Sayyaf bandits. These recent incidents including the murder of hotel executive Sergio Mazza – which looks like a contract killing – puts the Philippines under a negative light once again. As always this will greatly affect foreign investments into the country.

But as usual when the victims are high-profile or wealthy individuals, the whole nation’s attention is riveted and the police once more declare an “all-out-war” against criminals. This time, the intensified war is focused against car thieves obviously because the victim is a presidential brother-in-law. The fact of the matter is, a lot more people mostly balikbayans are victimized by criminal syndicates already known by the police prowling the airports.

The frequent targets are those returning to the provinces, who are easy to spot because of the huge balikbayan boxes and the number of people squeezed inside a Sarao jeep. People masquerading as policemen – although sometimes they are the real McCoy – hail the jeep in an intersection for some vague traffic violation and demand cash to settle the supposed violation. More often than not, however, the most vulnerable crime victims are poor, ordinary people who risk their lives to protect their precious possessions. What’s even more heartbreaking is when the victims are young people with so much promise and who show so much potential – like the case of Ateneo graduate Tara Santelices who in August 2008 was shot on the forehead by a jeepney hold-upper when she refused to give her bag containing a laptop. Tara – who was shot on the eve of her 23rd birthday - lay comatose for nine months before succumbing to an infection, while her supposed attacker was killed in a shootout with Antipolo police – so that’s that as far as the case of Santelices is concerned.

There are so many criminal gangs and syndicates operating in the country today, so much so that an enterprising writer can put out a volume detailing these gangs and their modus operandi. They have all sorts of names for these criminals: akyat-bahay gang, Ativan gang, budol-budol gang, bukas kotse gang, estribo gang, salisi gang. And what’s also alarming is that more and more young people are joining these gangs – who say they are forced to commit crimes due to poverty. 

And as long as the poverty rates continue to go up accompanied by the increase in the number of the jobless and the unemployed, expect crime rates to go higher. Does the president-elect honestly believe that fighting corruption is the only way to solve poverty and consequently lower the crime rate in the country? I think he will be in for a rude awakening. The fight against rising criminality requires money and resources – to raise the salary of policemen, to buy guns and equipment such as closed circuit television cameras, to purchase computers to facilitate record keeping and information exchange, among other things.

This wave of killings plus the kidnappings in the South are just some of the things that Noynoy will need to confront when he finally takes over on June 30. If there’s anything, he will need a man who’s been around and street smart like vice president-elect Jojo Binay. Sad to say, President-elect Noy is missing out in not appointing Jojo to lead the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Binay knows the ins and outs of how local government executives and the police operate. He can surely impose the necessary discipline to get these guys to work.

After all, a crucial factor in the fight against criminality is the cooperation of local officials from the barangay level up because these are the people who should know what’s happening in their own backyard and presumably, would be in a better position to pinpoint suspected jueteng operators, drug dealers and petty criminals. One of the frequent complaints by the PDEA is the “reluctance” of local officials to cooperate – which makes the fight against drugs even more difficult.

Binay’s experience in transforming the Makati Police force into one of the best equipped in the country, plus the trainings and various programs he instituted to professionalize the Makati police is something that can be replicated throughout the country. Those trying to block Jojo Binay from being appointed by P-Noy to the DILG are making a big mistake. The vice president-elect is one fellow who can stop the overwhelming crime wave that is going to welcome the new president when he steps into Malacañang.

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