PURISIMA THREATENED WITH RELIEF

Malasiqui — Speaking for the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino said he is not happy with the performance of the police in Pangasinan led by Provincial Director Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima.

 

Lambino confessed that majority of the members of the SP were alarmed over the spate of armed robberies and burglaries in various parts of the province and expressed disappointment over the performance of the police in solving the bigger crimes.

 

He said if these crimes will continue, the people, especially the balikbayan, might decide not to come home anymore for their annual vacation or invest their money.

 

“We in the provincial board are very much concerned with what is happening around and in various parts of the province,” Lambino said as he criticized the police for virtually neglecting the rising incidents of robberies.

 

He called on Gov. Victor Agbayani to assume a more active stance and direct the Police Provincial Director to be more aggressive in protecting the people against criminal syndicates.

 

‘As far as the provincial board is concerned at kung talaga hindi ito mapapahinto (and if it will not really stop) we will ask for the relief of the provincial director,” Lambino said.

 

He stressed that if Purisima fails to deliver, he will talk with individual members of the SP to pass a resolution asking gus (Purisima’s) relief.

 

“Never mind if crimes are being committed as long as these are solved,” he said in his most severe criticism yet against the performance of the police in Pangasinan.

Lambino said the police must give priority to solving high-profile crimes and not only the small crimes.

 

“Mayroon silang na-sosolve pero young mga small- time lamang at hindi yong mga involved sa high profile crimes,” he lamented.

 

Although admitting that the police have so far performed poorly in solving high profile crimes, Lambino does not favor involving the National Bureau of Investigation in all the many big crime cases in the province.

 

‘I still have confidence in our PNP, especially the Director General who is from Mangaldan, and our regional director who is from San Fabian. I hope they will pay attention to this,” Lambino said.

 

Pointing to the recent armed robberies that happened in Pangasinan lately, Lambino expressed the possibility that a syndicate is   behind all these because the modus operandi employed by the perpetrators were almost the same.

 

On his own, Lambino gave Police Provincial Director Purisima only a rating of five from a scale of one to 10 in terms of his performance because not a single high profile crime recorded had been solved.

 

Noting that Purisima recently received an award from the Eastern Pangasinan Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Lambino wondered how the group decided since most of the reported high profile crimes was committed in the eastern part of the province.

 

He cited the break-in at   the CSI Warehouse Club in barangay Nancayasan, Urdaneta where the culprits bore a big hole in the firewall, and once inside forcibly opened cash registers and the vault with the use of an acetylene torch.

 

“Gaya niyan, ginamitan ng acetylene, walang suspect (Like that, acetylene was used and there was no suspect,” Lambino said, hinting that intelligence network of thepolice might be weak.

 

In an interview last Thursday, Purisima said certain suspected groups whose members could be behind all these cases are presently under surveillance. He refused to identify the groups.

 

At the same time, the vice governor criticized the police in their campaign against illegal gambling machines called “hataw” or “ameneng”. He noted the confiscation of machines but no arrests have been made.

 

Lambino said that when Purisima was at the provincial board’s “Question Hour”, it came out that only one major crime to have been solved, namely the brutal slaying of a judge,” Lambino said.

 

At the same time, Filipino-Chinese traders in Dagupan expressed alarm over the unabated robberies in the city.

 

Three establishments were already burglarized twice, namely Filco, Tayas Commercial and On Sieng Glass Wares.

 

Robbed only last week were Dagupan Marketing and City Central.

 Other victims of burglars Guanzon Bazaar, Bazaar Mariano Lim, Ly Guana Bazaar and Contempo.
 

Villar reacts

 

Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr, who hails from Sto. Tomas, said he is also alarmed by these reports and wants the police to solve these as soon as possible.

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