Cordillera cops confess underreporting of crimes

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - The Cordillera police have admitted that Baguio CIty and Benguet Province, particularly the capital town of La Trinidad, have high unrecorded crimes.

Police said these crimes were unrecorded to make it appear that police records are clean.  Probe is underway on policemen that are behind the "cleansing" of these records.

Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong vows a complete investigation will be undertaken against policemen  who are faking crime incidents in their areas.

Magalong acknowledged that the practice of cleansing records started when he was not yet the director of the Cordillera police. He said he learned of the scheme when it was discovered early this year that crime statistics did not match.

Baguio City mayor Mauricio Domogan several months  also ago got irked owing to the "misreporting" of crime statistics, following the alleged rise of abduction of minors in the city.

The crime records were purportedly manipulated to avoid embarrassing previous police officials. - Artermio Dumlao