90 cop execs sacked for crime underreporting

MANILA, Philippines - Ninety local police chiefs were relieved from their positions last year and are now facing investigation for allegedly underreporting crime incidents in their respective turfs, according to a Philippine National Police (PNP) official.

Senior Superintendent Rosvi Manulid, chief of the Evaluation and Investigation Division of the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), said though the 90 police chiefs were given a chance to answer the alleged lapses as part of due process.

“So we are still in the pre-charge investigation and we have yet to resolve any of the cases,” Manulid said in a media briefing on crime statistics yesterday.

Manulid said the 90 police officials include a regional director, eight provincial directors, and 81 police chiefs.

PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima ordered a through audit of crime statistics early last year after many police stations reported low crime solution efficiency.

Chief Superintendent Jose Jorge Corpuz, DIDM deputy director, admitted that these police chiefs could still be reassigned to other positions since the PNP could not afford to allow them to be on floating status.

“They can be reassigned to other assignments and we are sure they will not commit the same lapses because they have learned their lessons,” Corpuz said.

Senior Superintendent Rosauro Acio, of the DIDM’s Research and Analysis Division, said before the auditing of blotters, some police chiefs resorted to shaving crime statistics to make it appear that their areas of jurisdiction were peaceful.

“In fact, based on the statistics in 2012, the Philippines had an average monthly crime rate of 18.60, which was lower than the United States, Japan and Hong Kong, prompting the PNP chief to order the audit to get the real crime situation,” Acio said.

After the audit in 2013, Acio said the PNP gathered that there was actually an 85.73 average monthly crime rate. “With the validation, we now see a more accurate crime statistics, malapit na po tayo sa katotohanan (we are now near the truth), the crime volume now that we have registered is 1,033,833, about 85.73 for every 100,000 population,” he said.

The PNP officials clarified that the crime statistics in 2013 with 631,406 incidents could not be compared with 2012 with 217,812 cases because different parameters were used.