Crime upsurge alarms Metro police chief

Metro police chief Director Vidal Querol expressed concern yesterday over the upsurge of broad daylight carjacking incidents and crimes perpetrated by motorcycle-riding men in Metro Manila the past few days.

Querol directed his five police district directors to crack the whip on station and precinct commanders found remiss in their duties against criminality as he called the peace and order situation in the metropolis "very disturbing."

"It appears that police action alone is not sufficient to stem the tide of rising incidence of carjacking and crimes committed by motorcycle-riding criminals," Querol told The Star.

Records reaching Querol showed the rampant theft of motorcycles in southern Metro Manila as well as carjacking in other areas.

The latest cases involving motorcycle-riding men was the P500,000 robbery incident in the corner of Tayuman and Abad Santos streets in Manila and another robbery in Wilson street in San Juan.

Querol said criminality dropped significantly during night-time with the implementation of his pet project Night Watch, because of the massive checkpoint operations.

"But the criminals are now getting bolder and have been striking in broad daylight. We cannot implement our checkpoint operation during day-time because it could create heavy traffic," Querol pointed out.

The Metro police chief said he will meet his five district directors tonight at the satellite office of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in Kamuning to study what went wrong with their police visibility and other anti-crime programs.

They would also determine whether the robbery at the Premier Bank branch in Novaliches, Quezon City is connected with efforts to destabilize the Arroyo government.

Querol admitted that some police officials claimed they are prioritizing their anti-coup operations and their anti-criminality campaign took the backseat. "The anti-coup effort should not take away from us the primary responsibility in fighting criminality," said the Metro police chief.

Querol was also disturbed on reports that policemen are being killed while they are off-duty.

"Hindi na maganda kapag ang mga pulis mismo ay binabaril na ng harap-harapan," he said.