MMDA chief urges new focus on street crimes
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 06/08/2009 6:56 PM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
MANILA - The chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority on Monday urged the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) to concentrate more on resolving street crimes such as snatchings and robbery holdups, which seemed to have become rampant in several areas in Metro Manila.
During the opening of the three-day annual budget review of the Regional Development Council-National Capital Region (RDC-NCR) at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City yesterday, MMDA chief Bayani Fernando said the MMDA has been flooded with complaints by pedestrians and motorists who have become victims of snatchers and robbers.
Fernando said the NCRPO does not need funds to buy new patrol cars, recruit more police personnel, or put up more police stations. He said what the NCRPO need to do is to come up with new strategies and identify new equipment to catch these snatchers and petty thieves and robbers.
“We cannot catch these snatchers with patrol cars. What we need are plainclothes policemen. We don’t need (police) visibility, we need to go undercover,” the MMDA chief told Senior Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel, the budget chief of the NCRPO.
Coronel and NCRPO Police Community Relations (PCR) head Superintendent Rogelio Jocson presented to the RDC-NCR the NCRPO’s budget proposal for 2010, including their projected projects and programs that require funding.
The NCRPO proposed a budget P1.83 billion for its operations in 2010.
Fernando, sitting as chairman of the RDC-NCR, said the NCRPO needs to review its current strategies and anti-crime drives to help in the development of Metro Manila. He said police should also assist the MMDA and the local government units in cleaning up the sidewalks and rounding up street dwellers.
“We have 15,000 policemen in Metro Manila. This is more than enough,” he said, adding that crime prone areas in the metropolis have always been identified and yet the police authorities seemed not inclined to address simple crimes such as snatchings.
He said the NCRPO also needs to review its quick response capabilities to fight crimes.
Fernando led the opening of the three-day annual budget review of the RDC-NCR, which consists of 28 line agencies of the national government and the 17 LGUs in Metro Manila.
The budget review seeks to draw up, reconcile, and finalize the various programs and projects of RDC member-agencies in Metro Manila for fiscal year 2010 and submit it to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for funding.
Comments