By JEN BAYLON

The Bacolod City government has formed a task force to address the widespread proliferation of vandalism in the city.

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez signed Executive Order No. 25, creating the Task Force Anti-Vandalism which is assigned to implement strict measures against vandalism.

The task force will be responsible for enforcing existing anti-vandalism ordinances, and will be collaborating with local law enforcement agencies to identify and apprehend vandals.

The group is also expected to work closely with community leaders, schools and local business establishments to raise awareness about the consequences of vandalism.

The city government is also looking at putting up freedom and expression walls in the city, where the vandals are “free to express their emotions and opinions as a form of self-expression.”

City Ordinance 534, or the Anti-Vandalism Ordinance, prohibits various forms of vandalism, including defacing public and private properties without the consent of the owner.

Under the measure, fines to be imposed for violators include P1,000 for the first offense; P3,000 for the second offense; and P5,000 plus imprisonment for the third offense.

For violators aged 15 and below, civil liability will be shouldered by the parents, while those 15 to 18 years old will be obliged to restore the property and required to render community service, the ordinance said.

Earlier this month, the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) formed their task force against vandalism, after several commercial establishments around the city were vandalized.

Authorities have arrested several individuals for alleged vandalism in the past weeks.

The BCPO’s Station 8 apprehended three alleged vandals at Barangay Singcang-Airport’s Purok Kabulakan 2 on Monday, April 22.

Recovered from them were three canisters of spray paint.

Last week, American citizen Jean Clifford Rabinowitz was also arrested by the police for vandalism along Burgos Street./JB, WDJ