By JOEY NACALABAN and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .
COUNCILOR Romeo Calizo over the weekend called for a meeting of city hall and police officials in order to assess security measures being implemented in the wake of the two broad daylight gun attacks in the city last week.
Calizo, chairman of the city council’s police and public safety committee, said last week’s shootings only meant that the police has not been strictly implementing laws, and the security measures here were not tight.
The councilor expressed alarm over last week’s shootings, saying the police should do something about the proliferation of loose firearms in the city.
Calizo said this following the ambush of a ranking Camp Alagar official, Supt. Michael John Deloso, on near the capitol on Tuesday morning and the shooting of Barangay 3 councilor Jonathan Borja in Nazareth on Friday.
He said the two victims were “deliberate targets of criminals.”
Calizo said there was a need for the police and members of the city council to meet and discuss the city’s security situation.
The objective, he said, is to find out what is lacking and why it was very easy for criminals to carry out gun attacks in the city in broad daylight.
Calizo said there is also a need to review ordinances on security and see if these have been fully implemented by law enforcers.
“Mahitungod sa mga checkpoints, ensakto naman but they should be strict gamay. Mabuhat man na without, off course, violating provisions of law,” said Calizo.
He said what is needed is the strict implementation of laws and not new laws, adding that officials should start brainstorming.
“Subra na kadaghan ang atong bala-od, ang gikinahanglan lang nga i-level up lang ang security plan aron dili na ma-usab kining ingon ani nga hitabo,” Calizo said.
On Friday, police told a news conference at SM-Downtown that law enforcers cannot be expected to protect all the people of the city 24 hours a day.
Cocpo spokesman Supt. Mardy Hortillosa said the Cocpo is undermanned and cannot be expected to keep an eye on a city with a population of roughly a million or a ratio of one police officer for every three thousand citizens.
“Kon ang ratio one is to one lang unta, walay gyoy crime mahitabo ana, gawas kon ang police ug kadtong iyang gibantayan nga tao, ma-o nay maghimog krimin,” he said.
Despite being undermanned, he said, the peace and order situation in the city is still under control.
Hortillosa said the police need the help of civilians in preventing crimes from taking place and in solving criminal cases such as last week’s shootings.
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