NOT Covid-19 but the alleged rising criminality in the city has pushed the Jesuit-owned Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan to suspend some of its face-to-face college classes starting Thursday.
Xavier University Vice President for Higher Education Juliet Dalagan said face-to-face classes, particularly those from 4:30 pm and onwards will have to revert back to online starting September 1 until September 9.
Dalagan said their students are at risk because of the rising criminality in the city.
“In the light of the alarming criminal cases in the city, all classes scheduled from 4:30 pm and onwards shall hereby be recited [sic] online beginning September 1 until September 9,” Dalagan said in the memorandum issued to all the university’s colleges and departments.
Dalagan said face-to-face classes will resume when the school administration appraises that the criminality in the city has declined.
Mayor Rolando Uy assured school officials of Xavier University that crime prevention is a top agenda of his administration.
Uy said the criminal cases cited by the school are “isolated cases” and that statistics from the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office showed there was a decrease.
He said statistics from the city police revealed that only three crime incidents were recorded in the past week.
“We have a weekly average of seven crimes for the past three weeks. It is an all-time low,” Uy said.
The move of the school authorities of Xavier University came after its Central Student Government asked that classes especially those that run to the evening be reverted to online due to the criminality problem.
The students cited reports of robberies, killings, and kidnappings in the past week that they say endanger them.
Among them were the July 17 murder and rape of a delivery rider and his girlfriend in Barangay Lapasan, the parking boy murdered in front of Xavier University’s main campus, and the killing of a habal-habal driver at the back of the university last Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Surki Sereñas, deputy director of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office said police have solved most of the crimes mentioned by the students and have arrested the perpetrators.
Sereñas said the killer of the habal-habal driver at the back of Xavier University has already been identified.
“If we have not prevented it, we will investigate and solve it,” Sereñes said.
Sereñes said 98 percent of the total index crime in the city from January to July this year was either solved or cleared.
“From January to July, all rape cases in the city are either cleared or solved. Cagayan de Oro is still a peaceful place,” Sereñas said.
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