Bantay Bayan: Metro’s latest crime busters

While many are hopeful about good governance from the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, many are also aghast at the increasing criminality in the metropolis. The streets are getting more dangerous and people do not feel safe anymore.

First Gentleman Mike Arroyo is very much aware of this volatile situation. In a press statement, Mike Arroyo said it is every Filipino’s wish for the day when people can walk the streets without fear of being accosted or robbed; or when women drivers can cruise at night sans the paranoia of being molested, much worse, murdered.

Early in the administration of his wife, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the First Gentleman said "because I am a lawyer, I can help groups against crimes in fact-finding and getting the assistance of police agencies. With me there, I hope we can get more things done and we will go against illegal drugs."

Supportive of the crusades the president has been undertaking, Mike Arroyo decided to go into crime-busting where his legal expertise can come in handy. But he is a crime buster of a different sort. Instead of just relying on the authorities, he is rallying the people via the "Bantay Bayan" program.

A special anti-crime prevention campaign, Bantay Bayan is a staunch peace-keeping force of civilian volunteers conceptualized by Mike Arroyo to help communities, barangays and puroks achieve peace and order, public safety, progress and development. The First Gentleman heads the Bantay Bayan Foundation which will see to the sustainability of the project.

"We all know that the local police does not have the number to effectively cover Metro Manila’s area of 2,150 hectares. This is how the idea for Bantay Bayan came about because it is meant to compliment the efforts of the police by creating a mass base of civilian volunteers," Mike Arroyo explained during the launch of the program last March 20 at the Marikina Sports Complex. Marikina Mayor Bayan Fernando is the first among the Metro mayors to respond by gathering about 2,700 volunteers for Bantay Bayan.

The program’s volunteers will be vigilantes in the truest sense of the word because Mike Arroyo has tasked them to assist local police in crime prevention.

"In the past, people were afraid of the police and we actually shied away from them when we see them. But this program will encourage the fostering of closer police-civilian partnerships because volunteers are expected to assist authorities in the dissemination of information on peace and order, community development, laws, ordinances and administrative issuance," he said.

The Bantay Bayan volunteers are also expected to assist the city and barangay disaster coordinating councils in providing medical, traffic, safety and security services especially in cases of emergency; help local officials and the PNP to gather data on insurgency, crime, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, vice dens, gambling and prostitution dens; and to conduct ronda and similar neighborhood-watch activities in areas where there are no barangay tanod posts. All these will be done without usurping police powers and prerogatives and with consultation with the fiscal, public attorneys or lawyers for legal advice.