Crime down in QC after deployment of cop-military tandems

By Ronron
February 12, 2008

Crime incidents in Quezon City went down after the increased police visibility since late last week in the streets and the augmentation of military personnel, the city police director said Tuesday.

Sr. Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula claimed that crime rate was down by seven percent as of yesterday (Tuesday) morning with the activation of 129 mobile police stations all over Quezon City since Thursday last week.

“We have a total now of 129 mobile police stations all over the city, with about 400 personnel. And they are also augmented with 50 elements from the National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM),” Gatdula said in Filipino in an interview in Cubao district yesterday morning.

The deployment of more personnel in the streets, Gatdula said, was in compliance with the directive of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. last week to beef up security measures following the series of robberies and hold up incidents in the city since January.

Over the weekend, Razon issued the eight-point anti-bank robbery measures for all police commanders due to the “alarming” incidents that happened in Quezon City.

Quezon City, according to Gatdula, is a host to around 600 banks.

Gatdula said the bulk of the mobile police stations are in Cubao and Timog areas because of the large presence there of commercial establishments.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Geary Barias said the present deployment is intended to last for a month to determine if it will be effective in deterring crimes. After a month, it will be evaluated to assess the strength of the force to be deployed.

But even this early, Barias noted that there have been no carnapping incidents in Quezon City in the last two days, and “street crimes have reduced.”

It can be recalled that Quezon City was once tagged as the carnapping capital of the country a few years back.

But the QCPD redeemed itself by getting the award for being the best police district in Metro Manila for 2007. The award was conferred by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Razon to Gatdula during the PNP’s 17th founding anniversary celebration last week at Camp Crame.

Meanwhile, Barias said the public should not worry about the physical presence of military men in the streets who are also carrying long firearms because they only serve as “back-up” to the policemen.

“They should not be afraid of the soldiers,” he advised the public.

Besides, the soldiers will be “mounted” or aboard the police cars most of the time and will only alight if they need to help policemen in responding to alarms, Gatdula said.

So far, only QC had received deployments from the NCRCOM, according to Barias.

The eight-point anti-bank robbery measures ordered by Razon are the following:

1) Intensify intelligence gathering and sharing among different PNP units and government law enforcement agencies;

2) Mobilize the core group of the Joint-Anti Bank Robbery Action Committee (JABRAC) and the Bank Security Manager’s Association (BSMA);

3) Develop crime-mapping in NCR (National Capital Region) to guide in the deployment of police units;

4) Intensified police visibility, mobile checkpoints especially to check on motorcycle riding persons;

5) Strict implementation of ‘No Plate, No Travel’ policy;

6) Station commanders and cops to be in the streets from 9am-3pm (banking hours) daily;

7) Intensified manhunt operations against known bank robbery suspects; and,

8) Publication of rouge’s gallery of wanted personalities engaged in bank robbery./DMS