Neighborhood watch may be restored in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY—The spate of crimes, which recently involved children, has encouraged leaders of 128 villages in the city to consider reinstating a neighborhood watch program in the summer capital.

In a recent forum organized by the Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation Inc.(JVOFI), Councilor Joel Alangsab, president of the Association of Barangay (village) Councils here, said the city government must consider allotting funds for barangay anticrime patrols.

Reynaldo Bautista, JVOFI president, said Baguio’s population, now at more than 300,000, had grown beyond the handling capacity of its police force, which was why the Philippine National Police had piloted in mid-1990s a multisectoral campaign called the Community-Oriented Policing System (COPS).

He said barangay councils could consider reviving this program.

Bautista was referring to a JVOFI-assisted program that was inspired by St. Louis county in California.

Foundation board trustee Ray Dean Salvosa designed the COPS as a partnership system between banks, civic groups and village leaders to watch over communities.

Banks and corporations helped finance logistical requirements for police stations and neighborhood watch councils that were monitoring a section of the city. Among the expenses they shouldered were vehicles, gasoline and even raincoats, a COPS manual showed.

Alberto Buyawe, chair of Barangay Burnham-Legarda, said barangay information is essential to crime monitoring and prevention because residents know who are strangers in their midst and which neighbor is prone to disrupt the community’s peace or commit crime.

“If we have a big population, it is very hard to [enforce] law and order… The police are shorthanded,” Bautista said.

The ideal policeman to citizens ratio is one law enforcer to every 500 residents, he said. But the city operates with a policeman for every 1,384 residents, said Superintendent Benjamin Sembrano, deputy city police director for operations.

The forum did not refer to crime statistics or reports, but media attention in the last few weeks had been focused on the death of a Grade 5 pupil who died after he was beaten up by a classmate inside their classroom and on 56 cases of women and teenaged girls who were reported missing.

Fifty-four of the missing women and girls were found and 45 had been reunited with their families, said Inspector Karissma Sta. Juana, Baguio police spokesperson.  Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, with a report from Vincent Cabreza