Amid growing concerns over the rising incidence of street crimes and the uncollected garbage in the city, a city lawmaker took to task the city’s chief executive to tackle the problem while urging aggressive action. City Councilor Alexander “Aleckoy” Lim, in a privilege speech delivered on Thursday’s session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), asked why the city police have not taken a more active stance against the series of robbery hold-ups, burglaries and shooting incidents here. In his speech, Lim called for more aggressive police enforcement and more arrests of perpetrators “before more lives are lost or exposed to the risks of the rising criminality in the city.” “Many are frustrated with the inability of our police to solve these crimes. People are afraid to go out in our streets. They are even afraid to be in their very own homes,” Lim stressed.

“We do not want Tagbilaran City to once again bear the label ‘Crime City’ just because our law enforcement units cannot stop the series of robbery hold-ups, burglaries, shootings and killings that has already claimed a number of lives,” the lawmaker said. Lim inquired whether a change in the local police leadership would ignite police action on the rising crime rate: “Do we need more intelligence assets? Is our intelligence fund insufficient? Is our support system to the City Police deficient? Do we need more communication equipment to our force multipliers such as barangay tanods? Do we have enough vehicles for police mobility and visibility? Do we need more policemen deployed in our streets? Do they have firearms to fight perpetrators of these crimes?” “If our police and other law enforcement agencies cannot stop the rising criminality in our city, then we can conclude that the authorities are either poor in their performance or we are condoning the criminals by not doing anything to help our law enforcers. We must act now and do what we can to help the victims of murders, robberies and other crimes,” Lim urged.

According to Lim, while the new city administration is asking for the public’s understanding as it tries to solve the myriad of problems, legislators must also do their part to facilitate action from the Executive. Lim said that the same urgency needs action from the city officialdom regarding the uncollected garbage in several areas in the city. “Serious sanitation and health risks could arise from this situation if we cannot act on this matter immediately,” he said. Lim asked whether the City Mayor needs the city council to enact legislative measures to empower him in solving these problems. “As I recall the State of the City Address made by the Honorable City Mayor here in our session hall, he specifically implored our help to address the garbage issue. We obviously need more garbage compactor trucks in order for our waste disposal to be properly managed. If so, then we must legislate for a measure that authorizes the City Mayor to start negotiations with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for a loan to purchase additional garbage compactor trucks enough to make our garbage collectors pick-up our household trash on a daily basis,” he said.

Lim likewise urged the City Mayor to convene the City Peace and Order Council (CPOC).

“There is also a need for an inventory of new firearms that were purchased by the past administration, which according to our sources, were not all turned-over to our City Police personnel. There is also a need to conduct an inventory of all hand-held radio equipment issued to our barangay tanods and purok tanods whether these are still functional or needs repairs. Communication facility needs to be re-established between our policemen and our force multipliers. The same goes with our barangay mobile units. Based on statements made by City Administrator Edi Borja, only three of the 15 Spider Cabs are on running condition, the rest remains unaccounted for. All the concerns I have mentioned can be threshed out in the CPOC,” he explained. Councilor Lim said that in the proper time, he will file the resolution or resolutions needed once the Sanggunian will receive the recommendations and requests from the City Mayor.