Mayor, police ask public to help curb crimes

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  —  Amid rising public criticism and fear over the perceived "unsafe" environment prevailing in Dumaguete, the capital city of  Negros Oriental, Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria and city police chief James Goforth appealed for strong community support and participation to help curb criminality.

Both admitted that the police and the city government cannot do it all by themselves, referring to maintaining peace and order and reducing criminality in the city.

They said an increased crime rate is not unusual for a growing city with an increased population and a host of other considerations and hence, the need for the community cooperation and participation in crime-fighting.

The calls were sounded off repeatedly on separate instances and at different venues following the series of shooting incidents in Dumaguete City since the start of  2014.

Public clamor for tighter security measures continues to rise over the broadcast and social media, which Mayor Sagarbarria has lamented, saying it was unfair for the people to say that the city government and the police are not doing enough to address criminality, specifically the illegal drugs problem in the city.

An official police report presented in a multi-sectoral forum Monday evening at the Marian Priests' Center at the Cathedral compound showed that from January 1 to February 24, this year, a total of nine shooting incidents were recorded in the city.

Four of them were in January and five of them in February, the latest incident on Monday in a daytime shooting incident that involved the killing of a man believed to have been previously involved in the illegal numbers game "swertres".

Of the nine cases, five of  them were related to the illegal drugs trade while the other four had different motives, said Supt. Goforth in the forum Monday evening. He did not elaborate during the forum which cases were drug-related.

Five of the victims in the shooting incidents died while the others were injured, Goforth added.

Of the four shooting cases in January, two of the victims were killed, namely, Elmo Andres Catadman and Carl Bryan Catan, who were gunned down on separate instances by suspects riding in tandem on motorcycles.

Timothy Fleischer Angar and Leomar Mandeoya, meanwhile, were also shot and injured in the same month.

Both cases were considered solved by the police while those of Catadman and Catan remain unsolved.

In February, four of the five victims of shooting were killed, namely, Neil Bryan Callao, Rommel Calidguid, Pedro Miguiabas and Louie Barrera. Arjay Sitoy Legaspi, the fifth victim, survived the shooting attack.

Three of the five cases in February remain unsolved, one was considered solved and the other, the Barrera shooting, is still pending investigation.

Supt. Goforth explained in the forum that based on guidelines and parameters of the Philippine National Police, cases deemed solved by the police include those wherein the victim or his/her family are not interested to pursue or file a case, when a case has already been filed in court against a suspect who is still at large, and when a suspect has been arrested and charged in court.

Goforth's explanation comes as questions from some quarters surfaced on why they have not heard of reports of arrests of suspects in the shooting incidents in Dumaguete.

The police chief admitted it is difficult for them to pursue a case against a potential suspect if the victim or that person's family does not cooperate or is not interested in filing a case against the perpetrator.

Also, once a case has been filed against a suspect, the case is closed as far as the police is concerned as it is now in the hands of the court.

Both Mayor Sagarbarria and Supt. Goforth appealed for the public to cooperate, saying crime prevention is everybody's responsibility.

They lamented that oftentimes, witnesses would refuse to cooperate with the police even though it was very obvious that they were present when the crime was perpetrated.

According to the mayor, if the public continued to remain in an environment of fear, it will allow the perpetrators to continue with their lawlessness. — (FREEMAN)