Cebu City ranked 10th safest in SEA

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City has been ranked 10th safest place in Southeast Asia by Numbeo, a website that generates data on cost of living, property prices, crime, health care, pollution, traffic, quality of life, and travel.

“At least, na-achieve natin yung ating goal na ang Cebu is maging safest place to live, work, and do business,” said Cebu City Police Director Gemma Vinluan.

She said police visibility and the successful buy-bust operations here may have contributed significantly to the impression about the city. She credited the police force and the community for the active participation in maintaining peace and order here.

She believes the city can do more.

“Pipilitin natin. Ang nakita ko lang na kaya pa nating iangat to (We can do more. We can still improve our placement),” she said.

Mayor Edgardo Labella agreed.

“Let us try our best to be better… if we are number 10 in the entire Southeast Asia, I hope we can improve that standing,” the mayor said.

Meanwhile, community engagement and preventive measures are concepts the police are highlighting in line with the observation of the 25th Crime Prevention Month.

Police Colonel Ildibrandi Usana of DRDA said that the best way to fight the crime is to prevent it.

“Every day, we’re working for the prevention of crime but closely with the support coming from the community, and you know the best way to fight crime is to prevent it,” he said.

Usana said what the community should be encouraged to do is make crime prevention a part of their system.

“So this is also our way of communicating to the public, that the police cannot just do it all alone; we have to engage the services of the people from the community,” Usana said.

For his part, National Police Commission-7 Director Homer Mariano Cabaral said he has directed the police to maintain intensified police visibility.

“Ug wala pa mahitabo ang krimen, kailangan aktibo ta mao nga naa tay mga police visibility nga nay patrolya nga makita aron ang mga criminal mahadlok gyud sila sa presenya sa atong kapulisan (Before a crime happens, we have to be active in driving criminals off and policemen patrolling our streets is the way to go),” Cabaral said.

He said prevention is always better because lives or even properties can be brought back once they have become the subjects of crime.

“It is better to be preventive rather than reactive. It is better to be precautionary rather than reactionary,” he added. (FREEMAN)