CCPO chief brings back TRS

Cebu City Police Office (CCPO)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is back.

Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, chief of CCPO told reporters this morning, February 11, 2020, that he has decided to bring back the group as he observed that theft and robbery cases have gone up recently as shown by their statistics.

In November and December 2019 alone, the CCPO recorded a total of 128 reported cases of theft and robbery which were said to be higher compared to the other crimes.

According to Soriano the theft and robbery suspects oftentimes elude arrests as there is no specific team dedicated to investigate and pursue them.

 “I think it’s necessary to recomposed, reestablished the team then give them a conclusive office para mabigyan ng attention yung dalawang  krimen na laging tumataas sa statistics namin (to give attention to the two crimes that has kept on rising in our statistics),” said Soriano.

Soriano added that there is already a memorandum for the TRS to be formed again.

He said the TRS team will mostly be composed of the policemen who were also previously assigned in this agency.

“So binalik natin sila together, but I intend to add some more. Nag pa scout lang ako sa ibang station sa kung sino pwede ang maisama sa kanila,” said Soriano.

(So we just brought back the team but I also intend to add some more. I am still scouting for policemen from the other stations who are qualified to join the team.)

Solving cold cases and coming up solutions will be part of the responsibilities of the TRS, said Soriano.

The 14-policemen assigned in the TRS team will be under the office of the City Intelligence Branch (CIB) of CCPO.

The TRS was dissolved in 2018 when Police Colonel Royina Garma revamped the entire police force when she came in as CPPO director. /rcg