PH focus crimes down by 47% in 6 months of quarantine: PNP

FILE: A police officer checks the documents presented by the motorcycle-riding couple entering San Mateo town at a quarantine checkpoint along Batasan-San Mateo Road in Rizal province on Thursday (August 13, 2020). (PNA photo by Joseph O. Razon)

MANILA – Crime incidents in the country dropped by 47 percent as community quarantine measures in the country amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) have been in effect for six months, a ranking police official said Friday.

In a statement, Joint Task Force Covid Shield commander Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said from 31,661 incidents of focus crimes recorded from September 15, 2019 to March 16 this year, the figure dropped to only 16,879 from March 17 to September 16.

The decline in crime incidents in the country translates to an average of 92 cases per day during the 184 days of the community quarantine compared to an average of 172 cases per day during the six-month pre-quarantine.

“We have been conducting an analysis of the crime situation in the past six months in order to identify the best practices and security adjustments that we could replicate in other areas and eventually institutionalized in order to sustain this momentum,” said Eleazar, who is also deputy chief for administration of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The eight focus crimes are murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, car theft, and motorcycle theft.

Car theft incidents posted the biggest decline at 66 percent, from 2,013 incidents to only 693 incidents.

Both robbery and motorcycle theft cases dropped by 61 percent, from 4,807 to 1,867 and from 218 to 86, respectively.

Cases of theft decreased by 60 percent, from 10,553 to 4,228 while physical injury cases dropped by 38 percent, from 5,474 to 3,418.

Homicide cases declined by 25 percent, from 819 to 612 while rape cases decreased by 24 percent, from 4,580 to 3,466.

Murder cases saw the smallest drop at 22 percent, from 3,197 to 2,509.

“The big decrease in cases of robbery and theft, along with zero report of looting, refutes speculations before that there would be an upsurge on crime against property and looting due to economic difficulties,” he added.

The Visayas saw the biggest drop in focus crime incidents at 50 percent, from 8,116 cases to 4,081 cases, followed by Luzon at 46 percent, from 16,781 cases to 9,046 cases, and Mindanao at 44 percent, from 6,764 cases to 3,798 cases.

The average daily crime rate went down from 91 to 49 incidents in Luzon, from 44 to 22 incidents in the Visayas, and from 37 to 21 incidents in Mindanao.

Eleazar said all police commanders were already ordered to sustain police visibility and beat patrol down and constantly coordinate with the barangay officials to intensify peace and order measures down to the community level.

“We would like to point out that the criminal incidents have been consistently declining in the past four years, or since our Commander-In-Chief Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte assumed the presidency in July 2016,” Eleazar said.