Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte solicited the support of 182 barangay chairs to stem the rising robberies and burglaries in the city.

Speaking before the consultation on the peace and order with barangay leaders at the Grand Men Seng Hotel Monday, he underscored the important role of barangay leaders as a force multiplier for the police to arrest criminals.

He said the barangay chiefs and corresponding village security patrols know neighborhood criminals hiding in their area.

“Identify who the enemies of the law are.  How does he look, what is his style?” he pointed out.

Duterte also offered P1,000 reward for any information that can pinpoint murder, kidnapping and robbery suspects as well as those wanted by the law. The barangay police are also urged to curb petty crimes in their respective areas.

“I’ll support curfew hour implementation if needed and I will provide assistance legal or otherwise,” he said, adding that they are the highest authority in the community, even more than the police.

He also told them to monitor the tricycle terminals particularly in Matina, Talomo, Bucana and Toril which might be infiltrated by criminal elements.

“All kinds of people are in these terminals.  You cannot read their minds but some of them might be psychologically ill who want to rape or molest women,” Duterte said.

He proposed that all trisikads and tricycles must be registered and comply with government requirements or else they will be arrested and their units impounded by the Traffic Management Center.

Every trisikad and tricycle must be assigned with corresponding number, color coding and in bold text that can be easily identified by everyone.

He said the barangay must assign a personnel that will monitor and will exact payment every delivery  of tricycles and trisiboats in every terminal.

“They  pay the barangay for every delivery,” Duterte said.

He also urged the barangay chairs to activate  and beef up their watchmen armed with night-sticks to overcome any attack.

Duterte also told the precinct commanders to also patrol the barangays  and personally collect the information instead of staying in their office so they can come up with an extensive database of known and suspected criminals.