PNP claims Philippine crime rate dropped by 15%

MANILA, Philippines - Contrary to earlier reports, the crime rate in the Philippines dropped by 15 percent, a Philippine National Police (PNP) official said yesterday.

While the total number of crimes recorded from January to June this year was 885,445 compared to 602,449 cases during the same period last year, PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) was unable to verify 375,521 cases and eliminated them from the total count.

He said the PNP found only 509,924 valid cases for the first six months of this year, meaning “our own crime statistics showed a decrease in both index and non-index crime categories” compared to the same period last year.

As for the 375,521 cases, Mayor said the DIDM had been unable to validate them but admitted that they had been recorded in either a police blotter, barangay blotter or a report from other law enforcement agencies (OLEAs).

He said an unverified case would be something like a bus robbery that occurred in Makati but the passengers got off the bus and reported the incident in Quezon City.

Citing the DIDM crime situation report for the first six months of the year, Mayor said Metro Manila registered the highest number of crimes, with 116,347 cases while the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao registered the lowest number with 2,096 cases.

The 206,386 cases of index crimes comprised 40.47 percent of the total crime volume.

Physical injuries, at 104,638 cases, represented half of all reported index crimes, followed by theft with 61,064 cases (29.59 percent); robbery, 18,846 cases (9.13 percent); car theft with 6,491 cases (3.15 percent); rape with 5,415 cases (2.62 percent); murder with 4,845 cases (2.35 percent); homicide with 4,371 cases (2.12 percent); and cattle-rustling with 718 cases (0.35 percent).

Mayor said index and non-index crimes decreased by 12.3 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively, compared to last year.

However, the same report said homicides increased by 6.87 percent; rapes, 8.28 percent; car thefts, 2.97 percent; and violations of special laws, 3.04 percent.