Akyat Bahay gang in Bicol? Foot patrols needed

If robbery gangs can ply their trade at will, without fear of cops, in Metro Manila, how much more in the provinces?

One Sunday evening last month, a house, just a stone’s throw away from our residence, was emptied practically of all precious belongings.

My son Romulo saw two men carrying various items to a truck parked in front of the house. He did not bother to ask as he was in a hurry to go home. Like everybody in the neighborhood who saw the incident, he presumed that the house’s occupants, the Nagera family, were just moving to another place.

We found out the next day that the house had been robbed. On the night of the robbery, the Nageras had gone somewhere for a respite from the summer heat. Could it have been an Akyat Bahay operation expanding to the provinces?

How safe are we when the police do not have foot patrols in our neighborhood? And why are there so many cops without sidearms? How can the police arrest criminals carrying sophisticated weapons? Can’t the Department of Interior and Local Government do something about this?

For the protection of unarmed, law-abiding civilians, who are always the most likely victims of our society’s bad elements, the police should deploy foot patrols in barangays, especially where robberies frequently happen.

—GODOFREDO O. PETEZA SR.,

JP Rizal Street, Barangay Camambugan,

Daet, Camarines Norte