What makes callous criminals and neophyte offenders so emboldened to pursue their plans of sowing seeds of terror and intimidation in the province and in the city itself?

If we only had a forward-looking police authorities backed by a security-conscious government, we never have to answer this question.

Is the provincial government aware of the fact that no matter how much promotion they drum up for Bohol’s tourism, all its marketing efforts could be wasted if the dark side of the province would be exposed to the world. And a see-it-all exposure of Bohol’s dark side can be accomplished in a minute thanks to the Internet, a remote noun for most politicians here.

What is the island’s other ugly face? The truth of the matter is: it is already difficult to feel safe anywhere in Tagbilaran and in most towns of the province.

Not that there has been a significant increase of crimes in Bohol. Not that criminals have become more daring to execute their evil plans. But that the government has been paying lip service on peace and order. That’s truth to tell. And this apparent lack of foresight and resources to deter crimes and instill fears in the minds of the criminals is nothing new. Our officials knew it. Our people knew it. But no Bohol politician is courageous enough to address this problem in details.

The basic anatomy of a crime tale states that no criminal, neophyte or veteran, in his right mind, would execute an evil plan if he knew his effort would just be busted in the end and himself sent into the frying pan of police authorities. A criminal would only be emboldened to materialize his plan if he knew he could just get away with it. Common sense, isn’t it?

What had hardened the guts of a group of robbers that robbed a couple outside the parking lot of Island City Mall in Tagbilaran City last week? What had buoyed up the resolve of the assassins to gun down a Bol-anon hotel owner outside a religious monastery in Tagbilaran last March 12, 2009, on an early morning?

What had bolstered the temerity of the attackers who stabbed to death a British national who was walking along Mansasa, Tagbilaran last March 25, or two weeks after the hotel owner was shot to death? Then a week after that, another British national was slaughtered in Ubay, Bohol, in an another apparent robbery incident.

In August this year, no less than 20 robberies and burglaries were recorded at the city police blotter and these incidents were not reported in the papers.

Flashback. On August 25, 2007 six robbers stormed the service van of the Bank of Commerce, Tagbilaran Branch, and carted away at least 90,000 pesos, leaving one bank security guard dead after the shootout. The daylight bank heist was seen by ordinary men and women in the street.

We wonder whether local authorities are keeping a record of all the unsolved crimes in the city and the province.

The bottom line of all this grim state of peace and order of our province, which is not what one tourist would first notice upon arriving here, is that criminals fear no one here. They believe, not just that they think of it, that the police are not an obstacle to their success. For the hoodlums and scalawags, Bohol is a mere playground.

Until the province and the city have a real police force and until Bohol local officials would sit down and take up this urgent issue of peace and security by heart, we cannot hope for a worry-free walk in the park.

Not even after 2010.