Roxas orders intensified drive vs criminals

MANILA, Philippines - Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II yesterday ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to intensify its manhunt for the most wanted criminals in the country.

Roxas warned fugitives from justice that the PNP will track them down.

During the weekly command conference at Camp Crame, PNP officials informed Roxas that half of the most wanted persons in Metro Manila have been arrested over the past seven months.

As of March 17, the PNP said that 299 of the 603 criminals included in the list of Most Wanted Persons have been nabbed since August last year.

Roxas said the PNP has formed tracker teams to capture members of criminal groups and most wanted persons.

He ordered the PNP to formulate a system to check on the progress of a tracker team’s operation against a particular fugitive.

Roxas recommended that non-performing tracker teams be relieved, undergo retraining and assigned to other units where their skills can best be maximized.

He said a commendation or reward must be given to members of tracker teams who are able to make arrests.

The PNP attributed the improved manhunt operations for wanted criminals to “Oplan Lambat-Sibat,” launched last year.

Oplan Lambat-Sibat is a fusion of different anti-crime operations such as checkpoints, mobile and foot patrols.

Roxas also ordered the PNP to study the impact of the “One-Time Big-Time” project on the crime rate in Metro Manila so that it can further be improved and replicate in the provinces.

The project calls for the deployment of additional police personnel in crime-prone areas in each police district in the National Capital Region for a specific period of time.

It was first implemented from Aug. 18 to Dec. 21, 2014.

Roxas said there were an average of 500 cases of robbery in the metropolis. The number went down to 427 during the implementation of the project, and further decreased to 166 from March 9 to 15.