Police have promised to step up patrols and other crime prevention measures in response to reports that petty crimes are rising in Manila’s Binondo district.
The Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, through its founding chairperson Teresita Ang See, received several complaints of rising criminality in Binondo.
Ang See immediately brought this to the attention of Manila Police District chief, Senior Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel.
Calls and text messages from Binondo residents report the increasing number of hold-ups and snatching incidents in the vicinity of Binondo Church, Reina Regente Street and Lucky Chinatown Mall.
“Two of my friends na agawan ng kuwintas (had necklace snatched), one in front of Binondo Church on June 17, another on June 25 on Reina Regente bridge while riding in a tricycle. In both cases, the snatchers were in their teens or early 20s. They approached the victims quickly and snatched the necklaces,” reports Chua Yu Bieng.
There was an account in Chinese social media of an assault on a delivery truck, which stopped at a red light near Lucky Chinatown Mall.
A group of teens went up to the truck, broke the rear window and took several cartons of goods such as denim pants and umbrellas.
Incidents of the same nature also happened on Del Pan Bridge. Young boys from the nearby shanties climb on top of open delivery trucks and throw down goods to their cohorts who immediately run off.
On the two major Binondo bridgtes, Reina Regente bridge and Jones Bridge, reports say informal settlers are “doon nakatambay palagi (loiter around there)” and hold-up unknowing passersby or snatch their mobile phones.
Coronel told MRPO that he has notified precinct commanders of the concerns. He also informed Ang See that the new Binondo Police Community Precinct commander (Station 11 in Gandara), Insp. Robinson Maranion, conducts 24/7 checkpoint in the Escolta and Jones Bridge areas.44
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Petty crimes in Binondo: cops respond to citizens’ complaints
