Editorial | June 14, 2022
The recent weeks were marred with crimes that once again tried to dent the distinction of Ormoc City being the country’s safest city.
Cases of murder, theft and operations against illegal drugs ran buzzing around the city recently. These instances were said to be long gone for Ormoc under the present administration.
The casualties were gunned out in broad daylight. The recent killing along the highway of Libertad shocked the constituents who at that moment were either getting off their bed, preparing breakfast, on their farms, on their morning coffee or on the streets waiting for public transport towards work and school. The still unknown perpetrators were aboard an MPV and used an armalite rifle to kill the victim. Just so, it is puzzling who owns a 5.56mm assault rifle here which bullet shells were recovered at the crime scene. And the former riding-in-tandem is slowly becoming a myth locally. Perpetrators now were aboard an MPV.
The public market recently has been marred with theft and burglary. A couple of stall owners, having their stores adjacently, were robbed. The burglary was believed to be done in the deep hours of the evening, as both stalls were the earliest to open and amongst the last to close in the evening. Yet market guards, who were supposedly the only people inside the market in the evening, were seemingly clueless that a crime transpired under their watch. And worse, those cases just fell into “it happened, pack up and move on” situations. Like market guards and the market admin quickly admitting it would be hard to solve those cases. Well, if robbery at a time when only guards are around seems hard to solve, how about cases when flocks of marketgoers are around?
There was also this case involving the stealing of a helmet on a parked motorcycle in front of a famous restaurant in the city proper. The victim mustered all her wits to locate CCTVs around and posted on social media her extracted footage of the theft. The video went a bit viral that it reached the suspect’s attention and gained unwanted notoriety which prompted them to negotiate for the return of the stolen helmet in exchange for the victim to take down those vids from social media platforms. However, as the story progressed, the suspect threatened the victim’s life on the premise that those videos had implied negative impact on their living. With the theft being on police records, the victim sought police intervention on the threats but to her dismay, she was tossed around with the so-called ‘jurisdiction’ of the crime.
These instances are surely putting the police force on the hot seat and uncalled spotlight. We could have thrown them under the bus but we chose to let them perform their task. We did our part to call on their attention and remind them that the room for improvement is limitless. We need to act collectively to maintain our standard of peace and harmony. Not every critique is harmful, others are there to help. As the ancient philosopher, Epictetus said, it is not what happens (to you), but how you react to it that matters.
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