Cotabato cops in tough watch vs. drugs, guns, firecrackers

COTABATO CITY — In the wake of increasing cases of gun and bomb attacks, the local police brace up for the apparent proliferation of dangerous drugs hereabouts, and a challenge to implement a local ordinance that bans firecrackers and firing of guns during the holidays.City Mayor Japal Guiani said he wanted the police to intensify its campaign against illegal drugs, which he considered the root of most crimes taking place in the city, and impose firecrackers and gun ban under City Ordinance No. 2144 the City Council passed in 2003.Sr. Superintendent Rolen Balquin, city police director, said local authorities backed by a composite task-force will implement absolute ban on firecrackers and gun firing, especially during Christmas season, to focus their watch on public safety and thwart security threats, including bomb attacks.The city continues to host a series of festivities, since November 19: Karmul Makhdum Festival, which was celebrated by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral (ICC) on December 8, and the month-long ARMM Founding Anniversary celebration, which will culminate on December 19, when the city government jointly celebrates with ARMM the Shariff Kabunsuan Festival.December 20, onward will be Christmas break holidays for workers and students. Government employees, including those in the ARMM, have also expected P10,000.00 in take-home year-end bonus for permanent, casual and contractual workers alike and a 13th month pay for employees holding permanent positions. So far, officials said, revelries have been peaceful and entertaining to residents. The city police have not recorded any untoward incident taking place during this period, Balquin said, adding that the military has been on-guard also, by frequenting vulnerable points in the city.But even then the police had to intensify the local security, especially during this period. Often, a big bang of loud firecrackers sound like the real lethal blast, so people can hardly distinguish them from a bomb attack by just hearing a loud explosion,” Balquin said.The two officials said the other factor for the city’s rising crime volume, based on compilation of police reports this year, is the fact that the city is a traditional market, where possibly meet transients with probable grudges in their places of origin.Guiani cited a recent incident wherein a man from Pikit, North Cotabato met and shot his erstwhile recruiter, supposedly over past disputes stemming from failed application for job placement abroad. The victim survived and was saved from his chasing attacker, by police and Armypersonnel on mobile patrol, incidentally passing by the scene of the crime along Gov. Dionisio Gutierrez Avenue.Officials also noted that experts’ studies, including those of the Zenarosa Commission, have indicated that the unabated spread of loose firearms have fanned cases of clan feud called rido,” the principal root of personal and political grudges in Muslim communities. (Retired Justice Monina Arevalo Zenarosa chairs the Independent Commission against Private Armies).