For their failure to control crimes, why blame cops?

It is unfair for media to portray Quezon City as the country’s “car theft capital,” as the Inquirer did in its Aug. 12 issue. Such reports only further embolden criminal elements to engage in other lawless acts—besides car thefts and robberies. Such reports send a strong signal that no police force in the Philippines—even the best-equipped, like the Quezon City Police District force—is formidable enough to stop crime syndicates. It’s as if such reports are telling us that the best local police force in the country is no match to wily car thieves. Or, despite Quezon City government’s assistance to the city’s police force, in the form of monetary allocations—including P7.3-million worth of gasoline supply monthly—and equipment/supplies, car thieves are having a holiday in that city!

Can we blame the Quezon City Police Department? Or the Quezon City government? If we do, we may as well blame the police authorities in Britain for the recent series of street-rioting and looting that began in London and spread to other big cities like Birmingham. Should we blame them, too, and say that they failed to contain the disturbance in London?

—GREGORIO T. BAÑACIA,

head, Public Affairs

and Information Services Office,

Quezon City Hall, Quezon City