Last Friday morning, a radio reported at least two robbery incidents in Cebu City's uptown area.
The first incident happened when passengers of a public utility vehicle plying the downtown- Barangay Lahug route lost their belongings to armed men who pulled off the robbery along Gorordo Avenue.
The second incident occurred along Escario Street. Armed men onboard another PUJ bound for Lahug held up several passengers upon reaching the Capitol area. The perpetrators disembarked and ran toward a road going to Barangay Kalunasan as one of the victims sought assistance from officials of Barangay Kamputhaw.
The first incident happened in a place that is supposed to be secured because it is near the headquarters of the city police. Sadly, not a single cop was able to respond. The second happened near the Capitol, the seat of power of Cebu province. But, unfortunately, there was no policemen roving around the area.
Every day, a robbery incident is happening somewhere in the city. In fact, many cases go unreported because the victims choose not to seek police assistance.
We do not have to tell the police about the rising criminality. Of course their data speaks of mounting cases of robberies, shootings and stabbings sweeping across the city.
But crimes do happen even in most unexpected places. And we cannot always expect the city policemen to be at every corner of the streets to prevent crimes. But at least they should have adopted a system that enables quick response to crimes in busy areas such as Gorordo and Escario streets.
There are barangay tanods and the Barangay Intelligence Network that are helping maintain peace and order. But the problem is that they lack direct communication with the police as far as crime prevention efforts are concerned.
Police have admitted they could not maintain peace and order alone. A mere police visibility will not really work against criminals. So, therefore, they need cooperation from the public.
However, in stamping out criminality, public cooperation has been proven not enough unless there is a concrete system that meets the need for immediate anti-crime response.