The Police Files of the 3rd District of Pampanga (City of San Fernando [CSF], Bacolor, Mexico, Sta. Ana, and Arayat) cannot lie. Out of 132 indexed crimes, 116 are said to be committed in CSF for the period January-April this year. With an average of one crime every two hours, this is truly alarming.
However, let us study the factors that contributed to the increase in crime rate in CSF. Compared with the municipalities of Mexico, Bacolor, Sta. Ana, and Arayat, which have a combined population of 334,604 based on 2010 census, CSF has 269,365. Mayor Oca Rodriguez recently said that there are about a million people constituting the day-time population of the city.
I agree. Most of the working residents of other municipalities live and work in CSF, considering the concentration of businesses and offices there. Thousands of students also study in this component city.
Population, as we all know, is one of the main factors in the commission of crimes. Hence, it is but logical that crimes would be much higher in CSF.
Moreover, considering that other municipalities are still considered as laid back, crimes in said places are often not reported to the police but are settled in the barangay level. I have experienced cases of rape, murder, theft and robbery being settled among families in Mexico and the adjacent municipalities.
Punto’s editorial (May 16-17, 2011 issue) sees this matter of non-reporting of crimes in another dimension: people do not trust their police in those municipalities, unlike in CSF where people trust their police for the solution of reported crimes. The Office of the City Prosecutor is busy in receiving lots of criminal complaints comparable with those received by the Provincial Prosecutor (for the whole of Pampanga).
I also pity the ratio of policemen vis-à-vis the population. The ideal ratio is one cop for every 500 people. The present nationwide data is one cop for every 800 people.
As per inquiry with the Philippine National Police of the City of San Fernando, there are only 118 uniformed policemen to man the peace and security of a population of 269,365. Thus, the ratio is one cop for every 2,283 persons. If Mayor Oca is correct, the ratio is one cop for every 8,475 persons during day time. This could be the reason why crimes proliferate in the city. We should understand that designation of policemen is a national policy and their salaries and budget come from the national government.
Perhaps, the provincial government and the city government can join hands in increasing this number to better protect the people. The provincial government should complement, if not surpass this number of policemen for designation in the city alone, the city that brings so much revenue and economic life to Pampanga and its people.
The congested city and provincial jails also fail to rehabilitate criminals. Contrary to the purpose of rehabilitation, those prisoners would soon end up as habitual criminals, thus, compounding the problem of criminality. I heard that the provincial government is giving up from financing the provincial jail. This is bad news to all the suspected criminals in our jail considering that the national government does not allot enough funds for national jails.
CSF is also the favorite spot for criminal activities because of its favorable location. One can easily get out of the city thru different roads and highways. With the kind of police checkpoints we have (now you see them, now you don’t), criminals are laughing on their way to the bank. And what happened to those police outposts that remain as mere outposts without even a cop? These have to be considered also.
However, business confidence is still high as evidenced by the unprecedented establishments of different businesses in CSF, where billions of investments are poured in, giving more people (not only in the city but the entire province) jobs and income for food, shelter and education.
I have seen how this city progressed and continue to achieve its goal of economic development under the watch of its most-awarded mayor, who is also the president of the League of Cities in the Philippines.
Development, which is used to be confined in the Poblacion, intersection, SM and Robinsons malls, now spreads to the business quadrangles of Maimpis, Sindalan, Balite, and Telabastagan. The buildings that continue to sprout like mushrooms in those areas, and the area along the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (JASA) for the past year alone are living testimonies of a vibrant city economy. Sooner of later, the JASA will be synonymous to EDSA, minus the heavy traffic, I pray.
Despite the recent tag due to increasing crime rate, CSF cannot be denied of its original title as the Most Business Friendly City. I now challenge its leadership to move fast in clearing its police crime index and give immediate solutions of crimes already reported.
