More cars, radios for cops

File photo of Senior Supt. Noli Romana (right)

Cebu City’s chief of police is not at all bothered with the statistics that show an increase in criminality in his area of responsibility.

Senior Supt. Noli Romana said he’d rather have an accurate crime picture and focus on solutions than harp on unflattering statistics. “Expect a turnaround in the next quarter,” Romana told Cebu Daily News in an exclusive interview.

CDN sought his explanation on the real score behind the official statistics that show Cebu City experiencing a 25 percent index crime volume increase in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period last year.

Asked why he is confident of a turnaround, Romana said he is counting on City Hall’s support and the resultant effects of the reforms he has instituted in the local police force.

Aside from additional policemen from the regional office and the return to full duty status of officers who underwent schooling, Romana said the City Council has expressed support to have his “wish list” granted. The list includes more patrol cars, radios and establishment of sub-stations in crime-prone areas.

Romana said he has also been trying to retool the mind-set of the policemen by making them aim for “full customer satisfaction” by adopting more proactive policing in communities.

His statements dovetail with yesterday’s announcement of the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC) that the local inter-agency body will be consulting barangay captains in the upland areas on the proposal to put up substations in their areas.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, also the PCAC chair, said that they will meet with the leaders of mountain barangays on Tuesday to identify strategic areas for the establishment of a police substation. “The Talamban Police Station is the closest police station that we have for the mountain barangays,” said Labella.

He said Mayor Michael Rama has included a P20-million allocation for the purchase of police cars under the 2014 executive budget, but the request was not among the items approved by the City Council.

Labella said he intends to reintroduce the budget request when Rama submits the second tranche of his proposed supplemental budget to the City Council.

Romana, welcomed this development. “We have long planned to open police stations in the mountain barangays,” he said.

Labella added that he will also be reviving an earlier plan to buy additional patrol cars.

“That (mobility) is very lacking and is a very important deterrent to criminality,” he said.
Romana said that CCPO has only 20 operational police cars – one for each of the 11 police stations and nine for the headquarters and operating units. CCPO also has 70 motorcycles. “The City Council asked for our wish list and we included 30 more patrol cars, 80 motorcycles and at least two police stations in the mountain barangays,” Romana said.

Some mountain barangay captains have reported to Labella on the proliferation of drugs in their areas. Meanwhile, a businesswoman remains in the hospital after she was robbed and shot while parking her vehicle near the entrance of the Ayala Heights.

Matter of time

Meanwhile, the culprits in the series of robberies last Sunday that included the shooting of businesswoman Eleanor Rivera in barangay Busay have been identified by police.

Romana said that the CCPO and the Police Regional Office – 7 are on the case. “We have an order from PRO-7 deputy director (Senior Supt. Conrad Capa) to solve the case by all means,” Romana said.

Meanwhile, a black wallet containing identification cards, driver’s license of Rivera was found in the possession of a shooting victim in sitio Cogon, barangay Labangon last Thursday evening.

Investigators, however, doubt shooting victim Teodorico Llacuna Tolentino Jr. involvement in last Sunday’s series of robbery and shooting.

Supt. Romeo Santander, chief if the City Intelligence Branch said the wallet may have been planted by Tolentino’s assailants to mislead them.

“Di ta motuo dayon kun involved ba si Tolentino pagtulis kang Rivera,” said Santander. (We should not immediately conclude that Tolentino is a suspect in the Rivera case.)

Police believe that Tolentino’s assailants and those responsible for last Sunday’s series of robberies and shootings are the same. Tolentino was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center but he died around 2 a.m. yesterday.

Romana said it is only a matter of time before the suspects are caught./With reports from Chito O. Aragon