EDITORIAL - A safe place?

A website has ranked Cebu City as the 10th safest place in Southeast Asia, a positive development that city police office director Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan attributed to the good performance of the local police force.

Numbeo – which collects statistics on cost of living, property prices, crime, healthcare, pollution, traffic, quality of life, and travel – named Cebu the Philippine’s fourth safest place after Davao, Iloilo, and Makati.

In her reaction, Vinluan credited police visibility and the intensified campaign against the illegal drug trade for the recognition. The Cebu City Police Office director also hailed community participation in the effort to maintain the city’s peace and order.

However, during the day the Numbeo report came out, another violent incident rocked the city when prominent Cebuano lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna was brazenly attacked by two motorcycle-riding gunmen.

According to reports, Dela Cerna was inside his vehicle after attending a court hearing at the Palace of Justice at the Qimonda Building in the North Reclamation Area Monday afternoon when a man opened fire at him.

Dela Cerna was able to retaliate when the gunman and his companion – now riding a motorcycle – chased him when he drove out of the area. The lawyer, who handled several high-profile cases, survived although he sustained wounds from the shards of glass from his car’s window that was hit by the shots.

The authorities cannot say Dela Cerna’s shooting was a rare case because there was an incident before involving another lawyer who was shot and killed after attending a court hearing at the Palace of Justice.

It seems the website report on Cebu City being included in the list of safest places did not paint the city’s real peace and order situation. And authorities should admit that the absence of police visibility in the area has emboldened criminals to pull off their trade.