Bacolod City police director Senior Supt. Pedro Merced yesterday he will present the 11 Nissan Terrano patrol cars at the Bacolod City police compound today to show that these are all running and functioning well.

Merced said he is satisfied with the performance of the vehicles and that what matters is their efficiency and utility.

He said he is planning to revive the motorpool at the BCPO compound to maintain the Bacolod patrol cars.

The Commission on Audit, in its observation report for the year ending Dec. 31, 2005, had recommended that the Mayor require the CBR Motor Center to immediately repair the two units of Nissan Terrano patrol cars and correct the defects of the other units as noted during the inspection.

It also noted that the vehicles have no remaining economic service/useful life, their mileages or total distance traveled exceeded the 50,000 kilometers, and the price also exceeded the remaining useful values (RUV) based on the standard formula.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the mileage mentioned in the COA report is not conclusive since the instrument can be manipulated.

He said the procurement of the vehicles was transparent since it was deliberated thoroughly by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. He said other local government units have also procured similar units.

Leonardia said the vehicles were purchased last year especially for anti-terrorism preparedness because of the scheduled Southeast Asian Games. He said the city gave the Terrano vehicles to the police and expect them to perform more efficiently with them.

Meanwhile, Merced said he is reminding his men to be vigilant and prepared because terrorists are expected to hit anywhere in the country, and could even eye Bacolod City as one of their targets.

Merced said terrorists want to create fear and gain media mileage. He said the BCPO its intensifying its intelligence network to pre-empt or predict possible occurrence of terroristic activities in the city. He said they are also improving their incidence management system by putting up the Special Weapon and Tactics team.

Leonardia said terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon. "The 9/11 incident meant to tell us that even a country like America, which has a more sophisticated anti-terrorism preparedness, can be attacked, so how much more the Philippines?" he added.

Leonardia said there were documents showing that the 9/11 plot was hatched in the country and the Philippines has its own share of terrorist attacks. "We should not allow this to happen here," he said, adding that the 9/11 incident was more than a wake-up call.

On the other hand, Muslim Brotherhood Inc. president Alex Sultan, said they are saddened that people have a generalized perception against them, since not all Muslins are bad. He said they came to Bacolod for peace and to do business.

Sultan said they sympathize with the families of the victims of the 9/11 incident. Their group has pledged to cooperate with the Bacolod police in its anti-criminality campaign including illegal drugs and video piracy, he said. *DMG/CGS

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