The City of Tagbilaran barely yawned from the Christmas frolicking when it woke up - shocked to a new year of crime wave in 2008. Juan de la Cruz had just changed his calendar.

Is this our Tagbilaran City - once upon a time ridiculed as a metropolis too peaceful for its own good? Is hooliganism in vogue? Is criminality now the rule of the day?

Too bad, we are not a Gotham City where you can flash the aerial signal for Batman and Robin to collar the usual suspects. But we are a city with supposedly trained policemen and a hefty "intelligence" budget plus tanods with patrol and arrest functions.

What in the names of Joker and Penguin are these authorities doing?

In a span of days, four shooting incidents and a series of burglaries resulted in the same suspects: John Does and address: Blank Wall. No arrests and no solutions.

Somebody is sitting on his job. It is not the citizens of the city.

Ronald Sendrijas, 35, former rebel, was shot dead by two men in motorcycle in an area near a well lighted signage of Paz Pharmacy along the second busiest street (Gallares) of the city. The murderers shot him with a 9mm gun and wore no bonnets which means: catch us if you can, boys. They haven't, at press time. The criminals' dare then was not an empty boast.

The Karapatan group in the Central Visayas said that Sendrijas had "no enemies except the military" while Colonel Cesay Yanos, commanding officer of the 302nd Infantry Brigade here countered it could have been the handiwork of the former comrades of the reformed rebel.

The city couldn't care less which side did it; it does care that they are brought to the bar of justice and jailed. How long will the city wait?

Before that, a series of unsolved shooting incidents occurred on January 12, 15 and 16. They occurred in Sacred Heart Village, San Isidro district and the Fish Port Terminal. Crimes unsolved.

About the same time, several burglaries were reported including a building just a stone's throw away from the City PNP headquarters. Several offices were ransacked - and it appears that the security guard on duty had no license. Burglars likewise entered the ceiling of PJ Star, a Cebu-based cellphone store who lost 100 cellular telephones. This store is situated in a building along another busy street (B. Inting).

Where is the police progress report on these? Or shall we just add these to the growing list of unsolved crimes of the city?

We ask the City Mayor Dan Lim, the police main hierarchy and the 15 newly elected captains to do a serious crime watch in our community before we become another crime city and drive investors and tourists away. That would be tragic.

Last we saw, we have five new "spider" vehicles for the barangay composite teams.

We hope we have the right personnel to man them and that there is no need to SOS Spider Man himself as well.

Last we heard even Spider Man the DC Marvel comic hero is also set to be retired by the publishers.

There are two things in the city that smell fishy - but at least the feisty mayor Dan Lim has thrown his (right) iron hand against one of them.

We commend the City Mayor for exercising strong political will in the demolition of illegal structures at the Causeway Terminal and the Dao Public Market. Ignoring the political costs in favor of the verdict of history, the City Mayor said the vendors have abused the kindness of the city and have converted them to entertainment centers and areas conducive to "police characters."

Mayor Lim by his brave act had clearly drawn the line on the sand - and those who cross it will have his wrath. He can go further by converting the Causeway Terminal into a "welcome sight" for tourists being situated as it does at one of the mouths of the fabled Panglao island.

The other fishy matter has to do with the unconscionable, heartless prices of fish in the city that sits on an island surrounded by vast seawaters. To get fish at a price of P130 to P250 per kilo is outrageous - and something really fishy is going on here.

It's a good thing that the crazy congressman never had his bill to repeal the economic law of supply and demand approved into law. Because the law "of supply and demand" makes us understand what is fishy from what is not.

If the demand is there, the surest way to increase price is curtail supply - by creating an artificial shortage by shipping fish elsewhere. The other is to corner the fish supply among compradors and then impose a cartelized or uniform pricing - to the detriment of the consuming public.

The public has cried loudly enough over our sister Station DYRD and complained to their elected representatives to do something about this anomalous situation.

We challenge Mayor Lim to make true his "another" promise to accredit fishing vessels docking at the fish ports in the city and ensuring free market trade.

Let's encourage him to use his (left) iron hand against this conscienceless fishing cartel. And even ruin their illicit trade permanently by inviting other more "free market" oriented fish traders in our city.

We don't need capitalist vultures preying their fishy means over this city.

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