Estafa, rape, drugs cases up in Baguio

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY -- Estafa, rape and drug cases alarmingly increased in this summer capital.
    The City Prosecutor’s Office bared this saying violation of Batas Pambansa (BP) Bilang 22 known as Anti-Bouncing Check Law and estafa were top cases being filed by complainants in the city first quarter of the year.
    Assistant City Prosecutor Conrado Catral said during the first quarter of the year, some 87 cases of violation of the Anti-Bouncing Check Law had already been resolved by their office and subsequently filed in court while there were also some 84 estafa cases also filed by the said office before the various courts in the city having jurisdiction over such cases.
    He added that the third most complained legal case in the city is theft ranging from the theft of cellphones and theft in supermarkets and department stores.
    There were 17 cases of violation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act (VAWC) handled by the city prosecutor’s office during the first quarter of this year compared to the 21 similar cases during the same period last year.
    Catral said there had been a resurgence of rape cases first quarter of this year, with 12 cases handled by the said office compared to the 13 rape cases filed in the different courts during the same period last year.
    According to him, six of the reported rape cases involved violation of the Republic Act 7610 or Anti-Child Abuse Law.
    He said during the same period last year, there were 11 cases of violation of child abuse which were filed by the city prosecutor’s office in the various courts in the city.
    He added other cases handled by the said office involve other index crimes, such as physical injuries, which were immediately resolved through the assigned prosecutors.
    Catral said during the first quarter of the year, the city prosecutor’s office file only two cases of violation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law, against arrested suspects during the conduct of anti-drug operations by combined law enforcers and anti-narcotics agents.
    For April and May 2021, there was a surge in the number of drug cases handled by the office with an average of three cases filed during the said period.
    The city prosecutor revealed that these cases were the subject of inquest proceedings and preliminary investigations on the various cases filed by complainants either through inquest proceedings or through regular filing.