Still vexed in the city by more blatant crime

When I wrote about the crime wave in the streets of Metro Manila (Gotcha, 24 Nov. 2003), I was hoping to jolt the police from stupor. I failed.

The article did something else, though. I had said that Manilans, feeling it futile, don’t bother to report to the police how they were scammed by cabbies or ATM conmen or police impostors at the malls. They prefer to just circulate their sad tales on the Internet, I noted, as if they can exact justice by warning others and hopefully deprive criminals of more victims. Now people seek me out or e-mail me to tell their story.

One is about a teenage daughter of my neighbor who took a taxi to school. Instead of dropping her off at the University of Santo Tomas, the cabbie drove ahead and said he’ll let her off only if she gave him P2,000. The girl nervously rummaged through her bag and was able to fish out only P220. That will do, the driver grunted, and let her off in Quiapo. The poor girl didn’t have a centavo left, and had to walk back a kilometer to campus. In her daze, she forgot to jot down the taxi’s name and number.

Yesterday a lawyer quoted what a Makati judge had confided: nine out of ten cases they handle are drug-related. Muggings, molestations and even domestic violence almost always had something to do with someone high on shabu. A second lawyer interjected that the same is true in Manila. He said he was stuck in traffic a week ago along South Super Highway in San Andres, Manila, when he witnessed a gang of boys yanking out the row of electric meters of the slum called Home Along the Riles. The meters fetch a measly P200 apiece in the blackmarket, but theft spells a minimum jail term of two years. Yet the boys were even laughing in drugged delight as they went about their business, unmindful of onlooking motorists. Just 200 meters away was a shack with the big sign, PULIS.

The lawyer was smart enough to not get involved. That area of South and Qurino Avenue has become notorious of late for muggings any time of day or night. I have received this month eight e-mails about it.

One was from a woman whose driver had dropped her off in that crime zone one morning. At a stoplight along South near Sunday Machine Works and Designer Depot, a man casually walked to the car and ripped off the radio antenna. He lingered beside the car, obviously waiting for the driver to alight and accost him. The driver knew better and just sped off when the light turned green. For, a few paces away on the road median, more men were waiting to pounce on him.

A friend of that woman had told her of what he witnessed a month earlier. A Honda Civic was stuck in traffic in front of him along Quirino. From out of nowhere, seven men swooped down on the car and pulled open the doors. One by one, the men then ran off with whatever they could grab: a cellphone, a bag, sunglasses, even the rearview mirror. The witness couldn’t say if the hapless motorist was male or female. He did see, though, that the man who attacked from the driver’s side was brandishing a knife. All that happened on the slow lane, in full view of pedestrians. A police jeep with two men aboard was two cars away from the Honda. Didn’t they see it, or were they playing blind?

Another motorist named Judy was luckier. In slow traffic at noon, a gang of boys tried to pick her door locks. She honked her horn furiously to attract attention. The boys then turned their attention to other cars.

Yes, a lawyer replied to his pals in an e-group, he too had witnessed a similar scene on that main road, which he passes daily to and from work in Malacañang. A taxi was at a stoplight ahead of him when a teenage boy approached and tried to open each of the doors. Fortunately for the three female passengers, all were locked. Fortunately too, the lawyer said, his car is heavily tinted, a deterrent of sorts. He reported the incident to 117 and advised his e-group mates to do the same in case it happens to them. The government lawyer ended with the note: "I shall call 117 again, although I don’t really know if that would help."

The presence of the police precinct in the vicinity doesn’t scare the muggers. Apparently the cops don’t know what’s going on. But even if they did, asked another victim, would it matter? She happened to drive by a recent demonstration of Erap loyalists at the corner of Ayala and Buendia Avenues in Makati. Two men broke from the mob and tried to open her front doors. They failed. But it happened right in front of a phalanx of riot policemen.

A resident in the area says the muggers live under the nearby bridge. Most are in their teens. Younger boys and girls can be seen sniffing Rugby solvent on the sidewalk, in preparation perhaps for a future like their elders’. Towering above them is a billboard photo of the city councilor, wishing them a prosperous New Year.

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And this one also from the Net:

The President decides to test the anti-crime skills of the NBI, AFP and PNP. She releases a rabbit into the forest and tells them to catch it. The NBI goes in first, posting animal informants and questioning every plant witness. After three months, it concludes that the rabbit does not exist. The AFP moves in and burns down the forest, killing everything there, then concludes: "The rabbit deserves it." The PNP goes in. Only two hours later, they emerge with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling, "Okay, okay, I’m a rabbit, I’m a rabbit."

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Catch Sapol ni Jarius Bondoc, Saturdays at 8 a.m., on DWIZ (882-AM).

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E-mail: [email protected]