Cebu City Police Office director Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador has challenged other sectors in the community to initiate and mobilize the youths in joining activities away from the rampage of fraternities and gangs.
The police have been doing their part already but such could not solely solve the problem of gang wars and violence, and the degradation of peace and order in the city, said Comendador.
Maintaining peace and order and enforcing the laws are the basic roles of the police but it would be impossible for them to do it by themselves alone because there are hindrances that they are facing also such as the lack of personnel and logistics viz a viz the heavy load of other police works, he said.
The help of the other sectors in the society is therefore needed in containing these wayward youths by providing them with other activities that would completely divert them from joining the street hoodlums, said the top police official.
Comendador meanwhile said that last week’s shooting incident in barangay Lorega-San Miguel was gang-related. Two men on a motorcycle came by and opened fire to a group of people that resulted in the wounding of five people, three of them minors. The fifth victim was hit while standing in front of his house near the group.
The minor victims were hit in their limbs and chests while the two adults, Thadeo Camacho, 18, was hit in his left leg, and Crisanto Sanchez, 42, was hit in the chest. Crime scene investigators found 33 shells of .9mm bullets that might have come from a submachine pistol.
The boys did not admit however their membership of any gang but Comendador said, “They are not just bystanders. They are also members of the warring gangs.”
Comendador said one of the minor victims was a member of the Alpha Kappa Rho and knew the gunman personally. This, among other information, enabled the police to identify the backrider of the motorcycle who was carrying the gun. Homicide investigators have been preparing the filing of charges against the alleged gunman while they have been trying also to identify the driver.
Comendador, after last year’s series of shootings in the city that killed five men and wounded eight others, formed the Anti-Street Hoodlum Team (A-Shot), a composite group of policemen whose main task was to go after gangsters and fraternity members involved in violence.
So far, the A-Shot has reported that two leaders of the warring gangs have already left the city and there whereabouts unknown. There are warrants of arrest against these two for illegal possession of firearms, said Comenadador.
The team also arrested recently two gangmen allegedly involved in the rob-slay of a graduating nursing student at barangay Capitol Site early last March. The two suspects however denied the accusations and insisted their innocence.
In relation to the rob-slay of Ruby Jade Ruba, the A-Shot have been monitoring gang activities in Lorega-San Miguel and in barangay Cogon-Ramos because of some information about eminent attacks from each side of the warring gangs.
Comendador further assured the public that these shooting incidents were isolated and should not be considered drive-by shootings because these were not shooting sprees perpetrated against anybody. He said the parties involved here were members of gangs. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE