PNP Director P/SSupt. Arturo Evangelista asserts the role of local chief executives in fighting crime even as he slams the lack of intelligence funding from local government units (LGUs).

COMMAND CONFERENCE. PNP Prov'l Director Arturo Evangelista (in white) presides over an urgent meeting at Camp Dagohoy last Thursday with the 47 PNP station commanders. He ordered day-and-night checkpoints and an updated listing of wanted personalities in each of the 47 municipalities. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During a command conference held last Friday in Camp Dagohoy, station commanders manifested the lack of support in terms of intelligence funding which is crucial in creating "force multipliers" to crackdown on lawless elements while emphasizing poverty and unemployment as "breeding grounds" of crime. Out of 47 municipalities, only seven police stations are allocated intelligence funds from their LGUs.

The PNP provincial director issued marching orders to the municipal PNP chiefs to submit until Friday this week, names of police characters in their municipalities, with photographs, if possible.

This is part of the updating of the "Most Wanted Persons" in the province.

Few areas which are getting funding from their intelligence fund are Tagbilaran, Inabanga, Jagna and Talibon.

In an interview with the Chronicle, Evangelista said that the Camp Crame statistics - indicating Central Visayas as the most dangerous region in the country can be attributed to high criminality in neighboring Cebu province.

Incidence of crime here in the province of Bohol is relatively low compared to other provinces in the region, he said.

In Oriental Negros, the incidence of murder has escalated last July with successive killings amid massive gun running operations in the province.

Responding to the public alarm of unabated highway robberies in the province, Evangelista stressed that robbers have shifted to daytime operations ever since the coordinated deployment of checkpoints from 6 PM to 12 midnight in different towns. He required strict compliance of all police stations in conducting regular checkpoints.

Evangelista emphasized the importance community involvement in crime prevention while hinting of possibilities that vigilantism might thrive here in Bohol like what is happening in Cebu and Davao.

He said PNP-Bohol is undermanned with only 1,000 policemen while there are 1,109 barangays provincewide. Evangelista stressed that barangay captains should be empowered by town mayors. He is willing to assist in securing firearm license if necessary once they will be deputized and armed to aid the police force.

He said that the intelligence network have been augmented in the province. In fact, they have already secured search warrants and will crackdown on identified gambling financiers and operators here. "Suertres" is still rampant all over the province despite intensified police campaign.

Meanwhile, provincial peace and order consultant, retired Col. Sancho Bernales, in a separate interview over dyRD's "Pulso", said that the rise in criminality in the province has to be checked even as he admitted that with Bohol's growing population and fast development as a tourist destination, criminalities will also be more noticeable.

Bernales, who served as provincial police director before Evangelista, stressed that the PNP and Philippine Army should double their efforts in fighting crime while saying that vigilantism would only harm the tourism industry in the province.

Bernales will be meeting tomorrow with Evangelista and Col. Arthur Tabaquero, commander of the 302nd Brigade of the Philippine Army, to discuss the peace and order situation here.

CRIME REGION

Camp Crame crime statistics for the first half of 2006 tagged Central Visayas as the most dangerous region in the country today.

Comprised of the provinces of Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor, Central Visayas or Region 7, which has a total estimated population of 8 to 10 million ranked first among all 17 regions in the country in terms of murders, homicide, parricide, physical injuries and rape, while placing second overall in robberies and theft.

The rise in criminality regionwide is felt here in the province with the series of highway robberies and unsolved murder.

The Camp Crame data, which was reported last Monday in the Philippine Star, showed that Region 7 is "not only the most dangerous region in the country, it also has the lowest crime solution rate of only 66%."

Of 694 reported crimes against persons and property, known as index crimes, law enforcers solved only 464 cases, the figures revealed.

Meanwhile, the region also registered second highest in country, after the National Capital Region (NCR) in terms of non-index crimes, considered as minor offenses like illegal gambling and illegal possession of firearms, with a total of 345 reported cases.

According to PNP officials, if index crimes surpass that of non-index crimes in a given area, it usually means that policemen in that area are not doing enough to curb criminality and are lax in law enforcement, the report said.

Although most of the summary killings reported in Central Visayas can be attributed to suspected vigilante groups in Cebu City, reaching at least 167 (unofficial count), the province still have a disturbing statistic of murders in the past months, most of which remain unsolved.

Index crimes in Central Visayas reached 274 cases of rape and physical injuries.

Reported cases of gang-related physical injuries have also risen especially here in the city.

From the 200 illegal gamblers arrested by the Region 7 police, only P12,439 in bets had been seized, the Crame report stated.

The PNP statistics also showed that in the campaign against illegal gambling, the region's more than 5,000 policemen are second only to their counterparts in the NCR in the number of suspects arrested.

Observers noted that Mayor Dan Lim's crusade against the illegal drug trade here in the city has reportedly driven drug pushers into other towns. Drug dealing has spread in the towns of Dauis, Carmen and Tubigon.

Meanwhile, the PNP statistics bared that the Central Visayas police ranked third in the campaign against illegal drugs, arresting 246 drug suspects, second to the NCR's 487.