Mandaue eyes more patrol cars

CEBU, Philippines — The Mandaue City government plans to purchase more police cars for each of the six police stations in the city.

Mayor Jonas Cortes recently said that the city intends to buy the six police cars within the year as he wanted to see more cops on the streets.

Cortes said that they will buy pickup cars as suggested by the police so that aside from making them as patrol cars, they can also use them to transport police signages.

"Providing patrol cars to police stations will help shorten response time to crimes and allow them to patrol the streets more," Cortes said.

Mandaue City Police Office chief Petronelli Baldebrin raised the need for more patrol cars in a recent courtesy call to the mayor at the City Hall.

Cortes said the vehicles the city provided to the MCPO during his first term already need to be replaced because they need constant repairs, thus hampering their operations.

In 2012, City Hall bought 24 motorycles for the MCPO and the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue.

Despite providing motorcycles to the MCPO, Cortes said police presence on the streets has not satisfied him.

Cortes said the city will now focus on the police stations as he noticed that police stations continued to be dependent with the MCPO. He said this time, he wanted to empower them.

The city still has to coordinate with the Department of Interior and Local Government for the purchase of patrol cars because there are regulations to be followed, he said.

For now the mayor cannot yet determine how much each patrol car will cost as they have yet to look for suppliers.  (FREEMAN)