An Editorial of the Bohol ChronicleOnce upon a time one can walk home in this city from midnight parties in one piece.
There was no need for cellular phones. Parents knew their kids will be home from fun with their whole anatomy intact. No longer it seems - in this city many of us call home.
Killings, shootings and robberies are in a rash in the city - it is no longer funny.
There is no more line between assault on life or property. If the robber wants your cellphone, jewelry or wallet - the 2000 version of the criminal will not hesitate to take your life. It can be depressing to note indeed how little value life is today. The cold-blooded killing of a resort executive who doubles as an event organizer inside a residential area is a shocker to many.
This should serve as a wake up call for City Mayor Dan Lim - whose "Dirty Harry" treatment of drug criminals almost wiped their race off the streets. He should strike his iron hand with the same intensity against this new brand of city abominables.
A Bohol Poll survey had lauded Lim's no-nonsense war versus drugs during his first term that merited him such popularity and maybe his reelection.
We know the usual constraints found in growing medium-sized cities like Tagbilaran. A ratio of 1:1,500 (police:citizen) is too big to be really efficient. Yet multiplying the police force entails a strain on the city pockets. Motorcycles and car vehicles, already lacking in numbers sometimes don't have budget for gas and repairs. We can't go to the boxing ring with one hand tied at the back, as the sports aficionado and patron Dan Lim knows so well.
The security agency forces should coordinate with the city PNP for good measure. They are usually armed and hopefully have two eyes wide open on the watch. They can be watchdog extension of the authority.
More vehicles mean more police visibility- can the private sector pass the hat for gas money in the meantime that criminality is raging in the city? Stricter implementation of the 10 p.m. liquor ban and the curfew is in order.
But most of all, maybe Mayor Lim can tap the barangay tanods for real intelligence work which the mayor successfully did in the battle against drugs. Maybe giving them arms may be asking too much for the moment but their presence in the community at night prowls will be a decided help.
We miss those nights when the friendly neighborhood took turns in serving coffee to the watchful tanods. Shall we do this again?
City crimes are on the rise - we challenge the city mayor to act quick and dirty. We don't mind, really.
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