Taxi driver’s slay rattle’s Baguio folk, probe on

BAGUIO CITY--- Police operatives here have started a probe to solve the first case of taxi robbery with homicide this year even as city police director Senior Supt. Jesus Cambay, Jr. ordered his and men to immediately make preventive measures to address such crimes among other peace and order concerns.

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Police records bared taxi driver Salvador P. Sab-it 55, of Bauko, Mountain Province and resident of Upper Irisan here  was stabbed to death by his still unidentified assailants last April 17 at 4:30 a.m. at Dominican-Mirador Hill.

            

Cambay, as he expressed condolence to the family of the victim, ordered the soonest solution of the crime which had alarmed local residents.

            

Meanwhile, city police leadership also raised  vigilance of patrol units and station commanders in the areas outside the central business district which also contributed to rise of cases of physical injuries.

            

Last year for the first quarter, there were 245 physical injuries committed, while for the same period this year, a total of 592 of this kind of crime was committed, based on police reports.

            

Using the reporting system of uniformed crime periodic statistics( UCPER), for the same period last year, only  two murders were committed in 2012 while the same number was committed this year.

            

Likewise, for the same period, there were 11 homicide cases in 2012 compared to nine this year, police records showed.

            

Parenthetically, even with apparently bloated UCPER statistics, the peace and order situation in this mountain resort remains as it was before, the report added.

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In fact, the new police leadership in the city was credited with the first arrest of suspected taxi hold uppers, and the sustained crime solution efficiency of Baguio police.”

            

Cambay had instituted police-community programs to lessen crime and make the city peaceful to increase tourism and preserve its status as educational center  north of Manila.

            

Police have also started “Operation Sita,” “Operation “Kap-Kap” and conduct of random checkpoints along city roads. -- Viyo Hidalgo