BACOLOD CITY: Mayor Albee Benitez has ordered an intensified campaign against vandalism in the city.

Benitez issued Executive Order (EO) 025-2024 dated April 24 which paved the way for the formation of a task force he himself chairs as part of a renewed effort to curb vandalism that has become a recent scourge across the city.

"Vandalism has an adverse effect on the quality of life in various communities, creating an undesirable impression of disorder and lawlessness," the mayor pointed out.

The EO named City Legal Officer Romeo Carlos Ting Jr. as the task force vice chairman.

The mayor designated the City Legal Office, Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), Public Information Office, and City Tourism Office to conduct an information and dissemination drive in all schools and barangay.

"Heightened police visibility is encouraged to monitor high-risk areas prone to vandalism, deter potential offenders and apprehend individuals caught in the act of vandalizing property," Benitez said.

Benitez also directed the DSSD to take charge of handling the minors that may be apprehended, and the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials to implement the curfew ordinance to discourage and restrict the presence of underage individuals in public places during late evening and early morning hours.

LtCol. Ronnie Brillo, Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) spokesman, said the mayor's order strengthens the similar task force earlier created by police city director Col. Noel Aliño.

"This means the EO has institutionalized the anti-vandalism task force of BCPO. We can now focus more on the implementation of the ordinance and apprehend the violators," he said.

Bacolod has an existing ordinance in City Ordinance 534 or the Anti-Vandalism Ordinance of 2011 that bans acts of vandalism, imposing penalties for violations and for other purposes.

Brillo said that since the formation of BCPO anti-vandalism task force earlier this month, they have arrested eight individuals, excluding minors,

They are now facing charges in court for violation of City Ordinance 534.

Among the high-profile vandals the police have arrested is a 30-year-old Filipino-American who is now facing charges, including possible deportation.

He is known for his "troubled abstract art" illustrated on a cemetery wall in Bacolod City.

Bacolod Police director Col. Noel Aliño said that the case of Jean Clifford Robinowitz, born and raised in California, United States, was already submitted to the Philippine National Police's Foreign Liaison Division on Thursday, April 25, for proper disposition.

Robinowitz, who is from Cold Springs Drive, Foresthill, California, is currently staying with his Bacoleña mother's relatives at Rosario Heights Subdivision, Barangay Taculing, Bacolod.

Robinowitz was arrested by members of the Bacolod City Police Mobile Patrol Unit while spray painting on the Burgos Public Cemetery wall on April 19, just 15 days after Benitez ordered an intensified crackdown on vandals in the city.

Robinowitz claimed that what he was doing was an "art" and "a trip."

He is facing charges for violation of a city ordinance on vandalism, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and disobedience to persons in authority.

Cpt. Francis Depasucat, Bacolod Police Station 4 head, said Robinowitz was released after posting a P1,000 bail on April 20.

Aliño said investigators did a background check on the Filipino-American and reported his case to the US Embassy in Manila on April 24.

Robinowitz, according to Aliño, also was in "trouble" in the US, which was why his mother sent him to their relatives in Bacolod on March 1.

Investigators said the suspect is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and his body showed bullet wounds.

Aliño said that neither PTSD nor abstract art can be an excuse for violating the city's anti-vandalism ordinance, and that they would hold Robinowitz accountable.

"Our legal team at the Bacolod City Police Office is now conducting a thorough review to determine if the complaint filed against him also merits his immediate deportation," Aliño said.

The BCPO has offered monetary rewards for information leading to vandal's capture, exemplified by the recent payout to officers who arrested a Filipino-American claiming his acts were artistic.

Data from the DSSD showed that many of the vandals are minors. The department is ordered "to take charge of the handling of the violators."

Lawyer Caesar Distrito, spokesman of Mayor Benitez, said the city government is looking at putting up expression or freedom walls in different vacant areas of the city where the vandals "are free to express their emotions and opinions as a form of self-expression," as provided in the ordinance.