A diver spots a hawksbill turtle, one of the endangered marine species, in Duka Bay in Medina town, Misamis Oriental. (File Photo courtesy of Department of Tourism Region 10)
ILIGAN CITY — Leaders of Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental province vowed to work together to enhance public safety and security to bolster the confidence of businesses and tourists.
Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy and Misamis Oriental Governor Pedro Unabia met Tuesday with police, Army, and National Bureau of Investigation officials for a briefing on the peace and order situation of the city and province and discuss security efforts.
The meeting came amid another growing public perception of a rise in the crime incidence in the city.
Unabia said security issues faced by the city naturally affect the province.
“We in the province, like Cagayan de Oro, are promoting tourism. Peace and order is a vital consideration of tourists in deciding to visit a place,” Unabia explained.
Unabia is worried about the circulating “unsubstantiated claims that the city is unsafe..”
Peaceful place
“Based on the presentation of the police and Army, our place is peaceful,” Unabia emphasized.
Police records show that from January to July, the average count of crimes against persons and property, or so-called index crimes, was 10 per week.
These went down to seven per week in the first three weeks of August and three in the fourth week when the city culminated its month-long Higalaay, or Friendship Festival, in time for the feast of St. Augustine on August 28.
This is why Lieutenant Colonel Surki Sereñas, deputy city police director for operations, debunked the notion of growing criminality in the city.
Perception
Last July, there was a growing public perception of a crime wave, but Sereñas said it was due to highly publicized crime incidents and not an actual increase in crime volume.
This time, the public perception is fueled by a viral video of the killing on August 31 of a habal-habal driver along Hayes St., just outside the campus of Jesuit-run Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (XU). The incident, which police described as “isolated,” has spawned a temporary shift to online platforms of all XU classes scheduled from late afternoon to evening, from Sept. 1 to Sept. 9.
After Tuesday’s meeting with Unabia, Uy said he would meet with leaders of business, the academe, and other sectors to discuss their security and safety concerns.
He explained that the crime incidents, which became the cause of alarm among the XU community, were fortuitous and not connected to organized crimes, armed conflict, or conspiracies.
“There is no major threat to our city’s peace and order because our security measures are well in place, along our borders and even on the coasts,” Uy said in the vernacular.
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