⌛ Crime and Dumaguete

It is true, that Dumaguete is not as peacefull as it once was. Apparently things took a swing for the much worse, after we had a new chief of police a few years ago.

The vigilante killings are certainly but the only problem either. There are also numerous robberies, and it is not a good idea to drive around alone on motorcycle at night anymore, particularly not if you are a girl.

My family have had several bad experinces personally within the last 2 years. the last one happened before christmas, where a burgler had climbed our fence and entered our house through an open window on 1. floor. (Yes, this was stupid, no, it is not open at night any more).

A person in the house woke up, he was surpriced in our livingroom, put down the item he was about to steal and ran away. Luckily noone was hurt in this incidence, but needless to say it was a quite unpleasant experience.

Since then he and his two friends have made a repeat attempt. Again a failed one, and this time they only got into an empty lot next to ours, before they were surpriced and ran away.

We have now, as a temporary solution, found ourselves forced to hyre a guard at a cost of 5.000 peso pr. month.

 

Do you have the guard stay inside the premises and patrol or outside the premises or both? Is the guard 24 hours? Same guard or do you have a security company doing this and they just rotate different guards. The reason that I am asking is that I may want to get a guard or security for when I move there with my family.

 

He stay inside the premises from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. We hired him through a bureau. Unless he quit his job or we ask for a replacement, it will be the same guy coming every night, but we pay to the bureau.

I guess you could save a bit of money by hiring a guard yourself, but we feel more comfortable using a bureau.

Best regards, Lars

 

Dumaguete has gentle robbers/thieves. Imagine putting down the items, when confronted, they're to take away with them instead sprinted away 'cause they're scared. In USA nothing's like that. In home invasions, they usually kill the occupants, run away with their loots, sometimes they torch down the house with the victims inside to cover-up evidence. What a horrible death it must be!

You guys have to remember, crime is all over the world, you can't escape from it, just have to be watchful and be aware of your surrounding. Dumaguete is a fast growing city and lots of people have migrated there from other regions of the country. As it was mentioned before, Dumaguete is not the same as it was, not anymore, but it's still safe to walk around even at night because my husband and I do that everytime we make a trip home. And it's my beautiful hometown and I am proud. :D

 

Thanks Swany. I read in the Sun Star that Dumaguete has the least amount of crime of the provinces in the Philippines. Which is great! Swany, you are correct, crime is all over the world. Still, I do not take any chances when I do not have to. The security is just being 'watchful' a deterrent for some whacked out shabu addict or some other misguided soul.

Thanks fundiver198. I will try and find that security bureau.

 

When I was in Dumaguete I lived in the Laguna Silliman area within walking distance to Harolds Mansion.

One night coming home from Why Not...I could hear some guys in the shadows...

PSSSST Hey joe....PsSst hey joe.....

I chose to ingore them since i couldn't them...and walking just a bit faster but not so noticable to let them know i was concerned. Just as I go to the steps of my home I looked behind me and someone was coming up in the dark behind me.

needless to say I took those stairs relatively fast. and never looked back.

this was really the only danger I "KNEW" that I was in.

Dumaguete is like any other town...that it's got problems but the good outweighs the bad. IMHO. I've said it before in here..think...if I didn't go to Dumaguete I would go to DAvao but Davao doens't have the atmosphere Dumageute has.

I never thought the area I was in was dangerous even when one of my favorite trike drivers picke me up as I was walking to the corner one night...he asked me why I was walking around there. I told him coz i needed to get to the main street and catch trike.

he advised me to not do that again coz it wasnt' safe were I was and it might get hurt. I was never hurt there but took his advice seriously.

AFter that night when the man was sneaking up on me....the trike drivers from Why Not always waited for me to get to my door before they left.

I don't think I could have had that anywhere else....

That's why I love Dumaguete....


Southerndon

 

Gentle robbers / crime all over the world

On the first one, I agree. These robbers were indeed gentle, or maybe the better describtion is, that they were amateurs not hard core criminals. It was probably 3 local guys, who had spend months talking themselves brave enough to brake into that big house, where the "rich" foreigner lives, and which would be an easy target, because when he is not home, there are only girls in that house.

I can imagine them having quite a few conversations about this topic over a bottle of Tanduay Rhum, Red Horse or whatever. Also we know from our neighbours, that they had been watching our house, even while I was home, and then apparently waited for me to leave the country, before they made their strike.

Which brings me to your other point. Yes, crime is all over the world, but Dumaguete is for sure not one of the safest places in the world to live anymore. Maybe there is less crime in Dumaguete compared to Manila or Cebu, but the lowest crime rate in any filippino province? I don`t think so, even the Sun Star writes it. Remember that not all you read in the papers is true, and I am sure, that say Bohol is now a much more peacefull place to live than Dumaguete.

There is also a world outside of the Filippines. True, the US is a very violent society with a murder rate, that is perhaps even higher than the already high murder rate that exists in the Filippines. But there is also a world outside the US. I am a danish citizen, and nearly anywhere in my native country it is possible for a girl to walk or ride a bike alone after dark without getting assoulted.

That is definitly not the case in Dumaguete anymore. Within two years, my fiance has suffered two attempted assoults in top of the attempted robbery inside our house.

In the first instance 3 guys were waiting outside the compound, where we live, when she came home from town in the evening, riding a tricycle. Their intension was clearly to rob her, when she got of the tricycle, but she spotted this and therefore had the driver bring her all the way to the gate of our house.

In the second instance a guy was waiting near the cementary on a motorcycle, when she was riding home at around 1 a.m. on her own motorcycle after an evening out with her friends. When she passed, he started up his motorcycle and began to follow her, clearly with the intension of passing her up and stealing whatever valuable items she carried on her.

She only espaced from this guy by drivning very fast and going to a densily populated area, where she know some people, rather than going to our house. When he spotted, that she was no longer alone, then and only then did he give up, what he was planning to do.

We have a friend, who had a completely similar experience 2 years ago, only in this case the robbery was successfull and her cellphone etc. was stolen.

To sum it up, I would say that Dumaguete is still a reasonably save place to live for a guy or for a cupple, who stay together all of the time. It is however not at all a safe place to live anymore for a girl, who is single, or whose husband / spouse is not home all of the time.

Don´t get me wrong. I still love Dumaguete, but I don`t see any use in closing our eyes to the problems, that really exists here now. And I don`t think it is completely unavoidable either. My feeling is that a lot of the blame for the situation can and should be put on the shoulders of the new chief of police.

Letting a lot of vigilante killings take place, for once, creates a situation, where the society as a whole gets more violent, than it needed to be. Drug dealers and other crimicals should be caught and then prosecuted, not executed by self-establised gunmen. That is pretty obvious in my opinion.

In the longer run, the best way to reduce the crime rate is obviously to create economical development, so there will be more and better paid jobs available for young people, and to lessen the gab between rich and poor. The latter requires, that Mr. Lee of Super Lee Placa and Hypermart, as well as other local rich people, will need to pay taxes. Which again requires, that the whole culture of curruption, which is evident on every level of the filippino society, is terminated.

Not an easy task I admit, but that is the course of action, that all responsible people in the Pilippines need to agree on persuing, if the country is to have a better future than present.

Best regards, Lars

 

Dumaguete is still a city of gentle people but whose gentleness has been taken advantaged of by criminal elements. I don't know if these criminal elements are endemic or from the outside but it pays now to be security conscious. Secure your homes, your property, and yourselves when in public. Even a walking/jogging exercise needs to be planned on secure routes. The murder of a prison guard jogger sometime ago still sends chills and paranoia whenever I venture a jog.

 

Speaking of Crime....

I've heard, and from all appearances it's true, that mr. Lee from Lee Plaza makes the Filipinas working for him keep their hair cut short....

What's up with that?!:(

That's criminal!


Southerndon

 

I suppose there is crime everywhere,
but do people consider hiring security guards everywhere like they do in Philippines?

Regarding "gentle" robbers... I don't think this is the case. Most unplanned murders in Philippines are result of robberies (read the papers), where as most murders in the U.S. are premeditated/gang-on-gang.