Valencia Best Posts in Thread: Important Forum To All Foreigners residing Valencia.

Thanks to the new Valencia Chief of Police giving the short presentation on crime in Valencia it is very much appreciated to know that you are concerned about the well-being of foreigners in Valencia.

I don't appreciate a few fellow foreigners there who tried to take over and constantly interrupt the briefing by giving comments on how the police could make their lives more comfortable. The meeting was about theft, robbery, car-napping, murder and other serious crimes......not karaoke, loud exhaust, giving the definitions for theft/robbery or murder/homicide (save those questions for when you get home and can ask Google but I'm sure if you thought really really hard you could figure that out on your own.....then again, maybe not) or why the Philippines laws are what they are and why they should be changed. Yeah, bad singing and exhausts are an annoyance but hardly considered a serious crime.

So instead of allowing the people with legitimate questions on how these recent thefts/robberies were being committed against foreigners and what steps we could take to secure their homes from criminals you turned it into a b*tch fest about minor inconveniences and sh*t the police have absolutely no control over. I tried to ask some serious questions concerning the topic but the assholes kept forcing the topic back to mufflers, karaoke, questions on why certain things are the way they are in the Philippines (and your answer for that is....it's the god d*mn Philippines , that's why. A police chief in a small municipality can't change that sh*t.) and even sh*t completely unrelated to crime. Instead of focusing on things we could actually achieve (securing our homes and belongings) some wanted to focus on changes that would require reorganizing the Philippines government from the top down and completely changing Philippine culture. If you are really that miserable here maybe you should just p*ss off back to where you came from. (Someone even told the COP that they need to set up a check-point in front of their house every single night to deal with the racing and loud exhausts.....right after the presentation that showed how large Valencia was (24 Barangays) and how few uniformed police officers they have (34 uniformed police + the COP and DCOP). How freakin' ridiculous and self-serving is it that you want at least 1/5th of the police force to sit in front of your house at night to deal with loud exhausts when it was just stated that there was a 20% increase in serious crimes in Valencia? Note: this person used to complain that the road to Valencia was crap.....and now complains that the road is too wide and nice. Sh*t for brains! )

Now that that little rant is over here is the numbers for the Valencia police station and COP.

Valencia Police Station - 0927-983-2642
Chief of Police - 0917-301-7926

Wish I had more information to throw out there but some people made that impossible. I can only say there were 27 criminal incidents in October (221 total for the year, up 20%ish from last year's numbers if I remember correctly) but I can't tell you what the breakdown of the crimes committed were or what percentage were against foreigners or if there was more crime in specific Barangays. Those are some of the questions I would have liked to ask but some fat cow kept constantly talking over me...and everyone else. I now know why they rarely ask foreigners for their opinions on how to help.....there are so many here that are selfish a-holes with complete sh*t for brains and won't let anyone else get a word in.

Second rant over.

 

I went to the briefing based off of this "The Chief of Police is inviting us for a meeting related against crime prevention", not a meet and greet with foreigners living in Valencia to listen to the all-too-common complaints about annoyances the police have little control over (if you think the police have anything to do with when/how the traffic laws are enforced you are either brand new to the country, very naive or very stupid). Also, noisy karaoke and exhausts have absolutely nothing to do with "safety" or "serious crimes", strange how those crimes/statistics were completely void from the presentation, no? I was very interested in what the COP had to say and I appreciate him asking us all there for the presentation.....I just wish I could have heard more from him on the actual topic at hand and much less bitching and moaning about annoyances from the foreigners who constantly interrupted him.

The fat cow and I have a history. I caught her in my apartment, completely uninvited, flirting with a helper I once had. The helper later quit to go live with her. I've also been given plenty of unwanted advice on how I should manage my life and what I should/should not do from her. I'm no stranger to her loud/selfish ways and unwelcome comments/advice.

There were a total of, what, 10-15 powerpoint slides and the COP had to take an hour to get through them because he was being constantly interrupted with questions like, "I heard that Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental are going to be combined into one province" (a question asked on a slide showing all the municipalities of Negros Oriental). First, really? Second, relevance to crime prevention in Valencia? Third, if you don't know the difference between a "region" and a "province" in the Philippines it really shows you haven't even slightest interest in the country you live in. The constant off-topic comments were what really ticked me off. It's one thing to take a forum thread or FB post off-topic, something I'm guilty of myself from time to time, or when having drinks at the local watering hole, also guilty.....but doing it at a meeting about crime prevention with the Chief of Police is NOT the place to do this nonsense. I know I had better things to do (today was my 3rd year anniversary with my gf) and I'd be pretty confident a chief of police had better things to do as well. So I will apologize, not for the name calling, but for the behavior of my fellow foreigners showed during that presentation. I'm quite embarrassed to be associated with such people and behavior.

Name calling might be a bit much but I come from a military background and I expect a little bit of professionalism and respect (if not for the person then for the position), my words are much less harsh than what would have happened to me if I had acted in such a manner during a presentation while I was in the military....which never would have happened anyway because I was raised by my parents to know that the world does NOT revolve around me. Some of the people there could have at least had enough respect for the COP (and the people there to learn about crime prevention) to let him get through his presentation before bombarding him with off topic and irrelevant questions. Believe me, everything I have said here was on the tip of my tongue there and I have no problem saying the things I've said here to anyone's face but I understand there is a time and place for things and interrupting the COP's presentation on crime prevention is not the place to call people out for being rude and/or idiots.

As for the crime rates: the crime rate in October was the highest of the year (which was only 27 incidents) and the reason this years number were lower was because two months had still not been accounted for. I personally suspect this is a regular raise in theft and robbery as Christmas time comes closer. Perhaps my numbers are a bit off as it was very hard to focus when I was raging on the inside from the nonsense behavior. What I would have liked to have learned was how often we are being targeted in these crimes and what methods were being used to victimize foreigners....you know, the stuff a person that went to a meeting about crimes against foreigners might be interested in learning about. I thought he said the crime rates were 20% or so higher from the same time last year, I could be wrong though, it's hard to remember these things when a presentation is constantly bombarded with irrelevant nonsense from the audience. Meh, I'm finished, I'm just getting more ticked off thinking about it. I'll stick to what I know about securing my house, since no one has broken in or harmed anyone in my house since I fired my helper and implemented my security measures, and I'm confident that the new COP can implement changes as he has in his past duty stations to make Valencia a better place. If people want to waste their time trying to do something about loud exhausts and karaoke that's on them, I'm sure they won't do anything but make their own lives harder and make enemies....who will then likely try to get even by committing more serious crimes against them.

 

The vast majority of the crimes in Valencia were theft and robbery. There were no murders, one or two homicides, a motorcycle or two stolen and few cases of physical violence. I've lived here for 5 years and I'd say all that's needed was a bit of common sense and some dogs (though my monkey does a hell of a lot better job at scaring away people and making a lot of noise when unfamiliar people come around....also makes for a great warning system for snakes.). Razor wire and CCTV doesn't hurt any and I am thinking about some pepper spray/stun gun in case someone decides to come in my house uninvited while I am there so they have a better chance of getting the proper beating they deserve.

As for the methods used, didn't really get a chance to talk much about that. My guess is that most of the thefts against foreigners were probably assisted by a helper/family member living on the property.

 

I don't recall you mentioning anything about it being at 9AM earlier. But I will, reluctantly, get my @ss out of bed and be there.

Curious: has there been an increase in crime lately in Valencia? I know you guys had some problems recently.

 

There is no info to share about crime and safety for the different Barangays in Valencia, at least not from this meeting. Your best bet is to send your wife to speak with the COP. He seems like he is on top of things and wants to help.