Thefts still rampant in Tacloban City, say residents

AP FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) are still besieged by thieves a month since the cyclone left the city in unimaginable ruin last November 8.

The rampant house break-ins at night, since power has not returned in the affected provinces, has prompted residents to devise their own neighborhood defense system.

Tacloban resident Jasmin Francisco, whose home was attacked by burglars twice last week, said she and her neighbors recently came up with their own system of alerting and helping each other catch the thieves.

“Just last night someone was on our roof. It still happens,” she said.

She said her brother shouted at the thieves, “There is nothing here to steal anymore, what more do you want?”

Francisco and her brother returned to their destroyed house last week after their family fled to Cebu after Yolanda struck.

She and her family barely escaped the rampaging floodwaters inside their house and then were pummeled by some of the fiercest winds recorded in history while they hanged on to their roof.

“For one week, whenever it started to rain, my first thought was ‘Where can I climb up?” she said.

She said whenever it rained, the children in their neighborhood would cry and call for their mothers.

While most of her family stayed in Cebu, she returned home to go back to work at the Department of Education Eastern Visayas regional office in Palo, Leyte, the municipality outside Tacloban City.

But since their return, she and her brother faced the constant danger of intruders.

She said burglars attacked last December 1, Sunday, and then again on December 4, Wednesday.

“We will wait for them to come back. We already have a trap for them,” she said.

Under their kapitbahayan (neighborhood) system, the neighbors have agreed upon a signal using their flashlights to alert each other.

At a pre-arranged signal, a neighbor on duty that night will run through the dark streets to the nearest known police outpost to ask for assistance.

Francisco said no burglars have so far been caught because the police officers refused to follow the fleeing robbers who sought refuge in empty houses.

“They said they might be charged with trespassing,” she said.

Like their neighbors, Francisco said they have made sure to be on the alert at night.

She and her brother have been taking turns sleeping, and she usually slept, clutching a screwdriver.

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