CCPO deputy director for operations Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla. CDN Digital Photo | Pegeen Maisie M. Sararaña
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said that strong police-community coordination is crucial in solving crime cases in Cebu City.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the CCPO, said that crime problems are a shared responsibility of the police and the community with the latter’s help being very crucial since not all areas in the city are deployed with policemen.
The success of intercepting and solving crimes will depend on the cooperation exerted by both sides. Parilla admits that it has been a continuous challenge for their end to get the full cooperation of the community.
“Usa naman na sa fact no nga tungod sa atoang ka kuwang, dili gyud nato na siya ma occupy tanan nga lugar nga duna gyuy pulis, especially sa tanang suok na lugar,” he said.
(That is a fact that since we lack manpower, we could not cover every area of the city, especially those located in the interior portions.)
Parilla made the statement after people refused to provide details about a shooting incident that transpired in Sitio Bliss, Barangay Alaska Mambaling, last Monday morning, June 22, 2021.
The place is being referred to by the police as “Barrio Ambot” since “ambot” or I don’t know, is the usual answer they get when interrogating residents of the place.
“Usa ni sya ka dakong hagit no, kay dili man lang ni diri sa atoang syudad or sa atong office,naa gyuy mga lugar nga ing-ana nga uncooperative gyud ang mga tawo,” he added.
(This is a big challenge, not only here in our city or in our office. There will always be such places where people are uncooperative.)
READ: Cop appeals to “Barrio Ambot” residents: Help us catch killer
As they too are undermanned, Parilla said that their deployment and police visibility in all areas in Cebu City will base on their crime mapping and crime clock.
“Ang deployment sa atoang mga pulis nag base na sa atoang gitawag og crime mapping. So ang crime mapping kung asa to ang kasagaran nga krimen, adto i focus ang deployment sa atoang personnel. So mao na ang atoang basehan sa deployment is crime mapping ug crime clock. Ang crime clock kung unsa ang kasagran sa krimen ang nahitabo ug ang crime mapping is asa dapita ang occurrence,” he added.
(Police deployment will base on what we call crime mapping. Crime mapping shows places where most crimes occur, we focus our deployment there. Other than crime mapping, we also refer to the crime clock. Crime clock shows the usual crimes happening in an area.)
With this, Parilla said that there are areas in Cebu City wherein permanent police visibility are observed. He is referring to places of convergence or public areas.
“Usahay kining mga hilit-hilit nga lugar, atoang gibuhat diha is mga passing lang nga mga pulis especially kung wala gyuy krimen kaayo nga nahitabo,” Parilla said.
(Sometimes, in these interior areas, what we do is that we have passing police personnel there)
In the absence of community cooperation, Parilla said they would just rely on the technical aspects along with a few eyewitness accounts if they are lucky since they cannot force people to speak up.
To address this, Parilla said they have been consistently making programs through their Police Community Relations (PCR) section in order to gain the trust of the public.
Parilla encourages eyewitnesses to consider the option of texting the police about what they know to protect their identity.
Last Monday, a shooting incident transpired in Barangay Mambaling wherein a certain Abner Sumadia, 44, was shot dead by an unknown perpetrator. Parilla said Mambaling Police Station is conducting a hot pursuit operation against the suspect who he refused to identify so as not to jeopardize their operations.
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