Bust sellers of stolen phones, cops told

Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta called on the newly appointed chiefs of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and the Western Police District (WPD) to make a concerted effort to bust syndicates behind the unbridled theft and sale of cellular phones on the black market.

Oreta said high police visibility and a fresh crackdown on criminal rings behind rampant cellphone theft and the sale of such "hot" gadgets in Quiapo and other parts of Metro Manila will greatly help NCRPO head Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco and WPD chief Senior Superintendent Pedro Bulaong address this festering crime problem in Manila.

"We hope that Velasco and Bulaong, who have recently taken over as the respective heads of the NCRPO and the WPD, will give top priority to putting a halt to the rampant sale of stolen cellphones, particularly in Quiapo," Oreta said. "Launching an effective campaign against street crimes will go a long way in reversing the negative image of the Philippine National Police and help the PNP regain its status as an efficient anti-crime force worthy of the public’s trust."

Oreta suggested to Bulaong to curb the sale of stolen phone units by beefing up police foot patrols in Quiapo and other places where one can easily buy "hot" cellular phones for a fraction of the amount that one has to shell out to buy brand-new units of popular cellphone models like those of Nokia and Ericsson.

Ridding Quiapo and other notorious areas of celfone theft gangs will help reverse the growing public perception that the police are helpless in curbing crime especially in the wake of recent reports that the crime rate in Metro Manila shot up by 19.42 percent during the first five months of the year.

PNP records show that during the first five months of 2002, 7,774 crime incidents were reported, up by almost 20 percent from the 6, 240 incidents listed during the same period last year.