In Six Months: Cebu City logs 44 shooting incidents

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has recorded a total of 44 shooting incidents in Cebu City in a span of six months.

CCPO Information Officer Police Lieutenant Colonel Maria Theresa Macatangay said that 77.3 percent or at least 34 of these incidents have been solved with the perpetrators charged in court.

 “For January 1 to June 19 this year, we are able to record a total of 44 shooting incidents here in Cebu City,  however, I would also like to report 77.3% of these are cleared, buot pasabot ana napasakaan og kaso,” said Macatangay.

She added that the perpetrators in 40.9% of these incidents or at least 18 suspects have been arrested by the police. As of now, only a remaining 10 incidents are under investigation.

“Forty-point nine percent ani nga mga incidents nadakpan jud nato ang perpetrator meaning naa gyuy warm body that person arrested that were identified to be perpetrators sa shooting incident. So, from 44, aduna nalang tay 10 remaining nga under investigation for this particular period stated,” said Macatangay.

She noted that the remaining 10 incidents are recent which is why these are still under investigation.

“These are the cases nga medyo duol pa sa karon nga adlawa nahitabo meaning presko pa – undergoing investigation,” said Macatangay.

The said shooting incidents have been broken down to five crimes and offenses.

Out of the 44 incidents, there are 24 murder cases, one attempted homicide, 13 frustrated murders, one less serious physical injury, and five physical injuries.

Macatangay said that most motives found in the 44 shooting incidents stem from arguments between the victims and their assailants.

“Most of the shooting incidents that were recorded, here in our AOR, naa gyuy panagbikil sa ilang assailant mao na kasagaran… ang motive nga nakuha,” said Macatangay.

Asked whether a lot of these incidents are related to illegal drugs, Macatangay said that there may be some related to the said crime, but they do not have the figures to show how many from the 44 shooting incidents are related to illegal drugs.

“Some of these incidents, if we are going to recall, in maybe mga interviews, naa puy mga panagbikil sa halin sa droga but I do not have the figures to show now how much or what is the percentage of those incidents, out of these 44 incidents,” said Macatangay.

Macatangay noted that whenever shooting incidents occur, there is an implication that there is a use of a loose forearm. She further stated that possession of loose firearms could lead to perpetuating other crimes aside from shooting incidents.

“When naa man guy shooting incident, ang implication ana, adunay loose firearm sa gawas that it might be used to perpetrate other crimes not only shooting incident but pwede pud mga grave offenses – pagpanulis, pang-hold up using that firearm, and so on and so forth,” said Macatangay.

Macatangay has encouraged the residents of the city to help the police in locating and identifying people in possession of loose firearms for authorities to prevent these crimes from happening.

“Atoa lang jud gi-awhag ang mga katawhan here in Cebu City to help us locate and identify whoever these perpetuators are, or you have knowledge of those who are bearing unlicensed firearms so report it to the nearest police station so that we can prevent further these types of crimes from happening,” said Macatangay.

Macatangay stated that every crime that happens in the city is a cause for alarm for the police, and that they cannot downplay these incidents, reason why they need to give proper attention to said incidents.

“In every crime that happens here in our city is a cause for alarm sa kapulisan. We cannot also downplay this one because even if we say that naa rai average na pito ka shooting incidents per month, that is still a cause for us to really give attention n into this particular incident,” said Macatangay. — Chiel Martina Y. Condor, CNU Intern, FPL (FREEMAN)