KILLING AS A WAY OF LIVING

Series of killings alarm Legazpi folk
By Manny T. Ugalde

LEGAZPI CITY --- A series of killings has alarmed local officials here and sent fear among the disturbed residents.

Mayor Geraldine Rosal immediately sought to double the city’s present police force to curb the rising criminality in the city.

Legazpi police chief Col. Oscar Regala said an additional 150 police personnel from the present 150 forces will certainly help the maintenance of peace and order in the city whose population has risen to 200,000, perhaps the biggest among the 7 cities in Bicol.

Bicol police regional commander Chief Supt. Cecilio Calleja said they are studying the proposal to beef up the city’s police force which seemed undermanned because of the rising population.

Former mayor and now city administrator Noel Rosal claimed that most of the killings were premeditated, making it hard for the police to prevent.

Nevertheless, he warned Regala that failing to solve the city’s crime problem could cost his post.

Regala, meanwhile, said that if the proposed additional 150 police could not be met, adding 100 or at least 50 more would make a difference in fighting crime in the city.

Killed recently were two womenAmelita Nebres and Suzana Nayve. They were shot down while walking along Washington Drive in front of the Alicia Hotel when two unidentified persons riding in tandem on motorcycle fired and killed them on the spot.

Among the celebrated murder cases only a few years back involved the son-in-law of the late Senator Blas Ople who was killed inside a hotel, the murder of an old couple who were found dead lying in a pool of blood inside their residence in Barangay Bonot within the city poblacion, and a fresh graduate who was gunned down and set on fire along a road within the city poblacion.

Last week, a navy officer identified as Ensign William Dalupe Jr. was also murdered in Barangay Estanza, 500 meters away from city hall.

Last month, a well-known lechon trader, Delfin Celedono, was killed inside his residence in a subdivision within the city proper while another bank lady employee and a car dealer companion were riddled with bullets inside a car in front of a mall.

Three minors, who were siblings, were also found dead inside their pushcart one morning.

Last Saturday morning, a retired military man, Rolando Abion survived an ambush while jogging in busy Barangay Buragwis. Police recovered three empty shells from 9-mm pistol.

The rising crime incidents in this city has forced the local executives to replace the city’s chief of police from one to another as in that case of former city police chief Col. Remegio Gregorio being replaced by Maj. Abelardo Borromeo, and then by the incumbent city police director, P/Supt Regala.

Killing itself is harsh. What more if you put art on it? Like what happened to the three little kids that were placed on a pushcart after killing them. I think the killers played tinda-tindahan after doing the crime. Evil minded people easily kill people just for fun, just for the sake of revenge and worst, some people do it as a job. But can you consider killing as a way of living? It’s ridiculous. People are really selfish.