Garcia to Tomas: Meet cops regularly

With the growing peace and order concerns in Cebu City, Councilor Raymond Garcia has urged Mayor Tomas Osmeña to take action.

“I don’t like to make any comments until and unless an investigation is made because it’s hard to listen only to one side without listening to the side of the police,” Garcia said when asked about the five deaths in Barangay Malubog, where witnesses tagged the police as masterminds. “But at any rate, that’s an alarming situation, and I’m urging the mayor that instead of putting the blame on the police, (he should) start doing action.”

Of the 16 deaths in Metro Cebu, half happened in Cebu City.

Garcia said Osmeña should sit down with the police by holding a monthly command conference since the police have already reached out to the mayor.

Garcia noted that Osmeña usually just sends Councilor Dave Tumulak, the deputy mayor for police matters, to deal with the police.

But Tumulak said that the mayor has a direct communication line with the police--there is no gap between them.

Osmeña has been criticizing the police to the extent of saying that they have a hand in the rise of the spate of killings in Cebu City. Crimes, he said, worsened when Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas and Cebu City Police Office Chief Royina Garma arrived in Cebu.