Bince-Barba word war rages
OVER UNABATED KILLINGS
LINGAYEN–Sixth district Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr., in a privilege speech delivered Monday, has raised an alarm over the deteriorating peace and order situation in the province given the high number of killings.
Bince said there were 16 victims of violent killings within the period June to the first week of July alone, He added that there are about 130 unsolved murder cases.
“I took the pain of researching how many extra-judicial killings happened since January and the numbers chilled my bones,” Bince said.
“What is happening in our province, Colonel Barba?” Bince asked referring to Senior Superintendent Percival Barba, the provincial police director.
Meanwhile, Barba, in an interview, defended the police force saying they have been working hard and actually have a 90% crime solution efficiency rate, a fact he maintains is based on statistics validated by the regional and national police headquarters.
While he admitted that there were 143 murder incidents in Pangasinan, higher than the 132 registered in the same period the previous year from July 2008 to June 15, 2009, Barba said 90% of these crimes have been solved.
He branded Bince’s allegation that the cases are “unsolved” as unfair.
He pointed out that the police consider a case solved once legal charges have been filed against the suspects.
“For the total of crimes that happened in the province, 10 percent remains unsolved which is realistic because you can’t really solve everything unless you are superman,” Barba said.
This year, the police have so far indexed 1,093 crimes – including those related to illegal drugs, illegal logging, illegal gambling, illegal fishing, and loose firearms, among others – which are much higher than the total 998 indexed for the entire 2008.
Barba argued that the higher number is an indication that the police have been working harder in identifying crimes and going after criminals.
He added that the average monthly crime rate per month for every 100,000 population in Pangasinan is about 5. 5, “which is still within the normal limit”.
“If it is zero, that’s abnormal which means you are either suppressing crime reporting or you don’t act on it”, Barba said, adding that if Bince wants the crime rate at zero level, “he is dreaming”.#
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