PNP: Crime rate up after Estrada’s ouster

The crime rate went up after Joseph Estrada was ousted as president last month, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza admitted yesterday.

Mendoza said this was because criminals took advantage of the transition period after Estrada was replaced by President Arroyo on Jan. 20 to carry out 11 kidnappings and three bank robberies.

"(This is) to be expected since we are still in a transition period. We expected that to happen and right now, we’re doing everything to address the situation," Mendoza said.

Interior and Local Go- vernment Secretary Jose Lina, however, said the PNP should not use the transition period as an excuse and should work to shorten it.

"That is not an excuse," Lina said in a breakfast forum yesterday. "Our mission is to shorten this (transition) period."

Lina said the PNP will launch on March 1 an anti-crime strategy that will involve barangay officials who are requested to report crimes to a nerve center which will require responding police units to submit feedback on how they acted on the complaint.

Neither Mendoza nor Lina, however, released comparative figures.

But, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), about P27 million was lost last year to bank and armored van robberies.

PAOCTF chief Director Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. noted that the amount constitutes two percent of the total losses incurred by the banking system.

This means about P1.323 billion was lost last year due to bank fraud, Ebdane said, stressing that these fall outside police jurisdiction because police can only respond to bank alarms and can act only on available information for preventive measures.

"Security of the banks rests on the management," Ebdane said.

But Ebdane assured the Bank Security Management Association (BSMA) that the PAOCTF will nonetheless intensify its drive against bank robbery syndicates.

The BSMA sought police assistance in stopping bank robberies which increased over the past two weeks with heists at the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) in Quezon City and the Banco de Oro in Masinag, Antipolo City.