Philippine crime rate up by 46%

MANILA, Philippines - While the Philippine National Police (PNP) claimed a 60 percent decrease in crimes in Metro Manila, the number of crimes committed nationwide increased by about 46 percent during the first six months of the year as compared to the same period last year.

Records from the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) showed that theft, car theft, physical injuries and rape were among the crimes that had a huge increase.

The PNP said 885,445 crimes were reported from January to June, compared to 603,085 cases during the same period last year.

There were 352,321 index crimes for the first six months of the year, which is 37.3 percent more than the 256,592 cases reported in the same period last year.

Index crimes include murder, homicide, rape, robbery and theft while non-index crimes include estafa, prostitution, kidnapping and car theft.

PNP-DIDM records indicated that from 86,451 thefts recorded in the first six months of 2014, this ballooned to 105,229 cases this year while cases of car theft jumped to 10,039 from 5,599 last year.

Murders increased from 5,004 cases to 7,245 cases this year while homicides were up to 6,607 from 4,091 last year.

Cases of physical injury increased to 182,886 from 122,084 last year while rapes increased to 8,288 this year from 5,069 last year.

The PNP said 172,959 index crimes were “cleared” – settled between the complainant and the respondent – and 100,938 last year.

Index crimes “solved” – meaning charges were filed in court – were reported at 134,074 cases this year compared to 74,172 last year.

The PNP earlier announced that crime rate in Metro Manila was reduced by 60 to 70 percent due to the systematic implementation of Oplan Lambat-Sibat, an anti-crime drive supervised by Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

Roxas and the PNP announced a plan to implement Oplan Lambat-Sibat in Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

Under Oplan Lambat-Sibat, police officers set up surprise checkpoints, raid or visit the homes of delinquent gun owners, intensify intelligence-gathering and operations against organized crime groups and aggressively pursue fugitives.

The PNP also puts pressure on officials who head city and municipal police forces as well as station and precinct commanders to produce results in the fight against crime.