Davao Criminals: Your Life Ends Here!

"DAVAO CRIMINALS: YOUR LIFE ENDS HERE!" - Mayor Sara Duterte, Davao City

Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte checked the killed holdaper (TV Patrol South Mindanao)

With the recent crime incidents that had happen in Davao City, people are alarmed with their safety when walking in downtown area and walking late at night. But criminals now knows no time, the incident that had happen last February 18, 2012 at RGA Village, Paciano Bangoy, Marjorie G. Kwan, a registered nurse was robbed and shot four times by motorcycle-riding-thieves at 12:00nn, during broad daylight. It seems that these culprits do not consider time anymore as long as they need to robbed and held money from their victims. A motorcycle is an easy escape for them. Are we safe in Davao City? Even in broad daylight all of the citizens in Davao City are at risk in these petty crimes. Maybe the police should double their effort and be proactive in solving these consecutive crimes. 

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has a new tagline for criminals, derived from Davao's tourism slogan (Davao:Life is here), which is " DAVAO CRIMINALS: YOUR LIFE ENDS HERE!". She said that: "Dabawenyos are not afraid, and why should we be afraid now?". She emphasize during her press conference last February 22,2012 that Davao has been through a lot of good and bad and it is not the time to give up (Courtesy of Sunstar Davao, 23-Feb-2012 issue).

Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was very supportive with the police and whenever there is a criminal being caught he is always there to check the situation. He even gave a quota to policemen to catch criminals at least 10 holdapers a day and he will give them incentives. He also sent a message to the human rights advocates, that they should not belittle the effort of the police and they should not suspect that they salvage the criminals, because they are just doing their jobs to protect the people of Davao City.

This problem on petty crimes and killings cannot be solved immediately. As John F. Kennedy said: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."  To solve the problem of crime we need to unite and cooperate, civilians, police and the government vis-a-vis Private-Public-Partnership (one of PNOY's agenda). The police together with the citizens in Davao should work hand-in-hand to achieve the genuine safety and security of the people. Its really hard to solve this problem. Because due to rapid development, poverty and unemployment, people who have less are forced to do crimes in order to survive and feed their families. If we cannot solve the root cause of this problem, we will keep on experiencing the mystical spell of crime.