City shores up intelligence network

To help curb the rising criminality in Cebu City, police and city officials have decided to recruit more informers from the various barangays to help gather information that could help improve the peace and order situation.

Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., a member of the committee on police, fire and penology and chairman of the committee on dangerous drugs of the Cebu City council, said the original plan is to hire at least five informers or agents in every sitio.

Cebu City police intelligence chief Paul Labra II was tasked to train those who will be recruited as new members of the Barangay Intelligence Network (BIN) so they would know the basics of the intelligence work and on how to render a report.

Labra said, the newly recruited BIN members would be required to undergo seminars for at least 12 sessions that will be done during weekends because some of the barangay informers also have jobs.

The BIN members will be taught how to conduct actual surveillance of suspected criminals, casing or surveillance of the lairs of criminal elements, and theories about intelligence gathering to make them effective in the conduct of their task.

Pe said the city government would shoulder the cost of the seminar.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña expects that the peace and order situation in the city would improve with the help of the concerned residents, who agreed to become members of the BIN, because they are the ones who will act as the "eyes and ears" of the law enforcement authorities.

Labra explained that at present, the BIN members will not receive any incentive from the city government, but said the city will not turn its back on BIN members, who might encounter problems in connection with their official duties.

When he met the newly recruited BIN members from barangay Lorega-San Miguel last Friday evening, Labra announced that the recent arrest of suspected robber Ruel "Rey" Torres in Mindanao was a product of information relayed to them by a barangay informer.

Osmeña is so concerned about the reports that some suspected terrorists have been sighted in Cebu, which prompted him to reiterate his appeal to the people to report to the authorities the presence of any suspicious persons in their places.

But the main task of the BIN members is to inform the police authorities about the people behind illegal activities in their barangays, such as suspected robbers, drug traffickers and those involved in illegal gambling.

It was learned that the crime volume in Cebu City has increased, particularly the crimes against persons and properties.

During the first three months this year, the crime volume in the whole region reached 3,716, which is 30 percent higher compared to only 2,860 crimes reported in for the same quarter in 2004.

Of the 2,860 reported crimes for the first three months this year, 2,513 of them are Index Crimes or crimes against persons and properties while only 1,203 are Non-Index Crimes or the implementation of special laws and some minor cases.

Camp Crame officials said the increase of the Index Crimes is an indication that the police have failed to do their task, because they failed to preserve peace and order in their area. - Rene U. Borromeo