PNP: Crime volume down 12% in first half of 2001

The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported over the weekend that total crime volume decreased by 12 percent in the first six months this year compared to last year’s figure.

PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza said yesterday that police efforts to reduce crime are gaining ground, which he attributed to improved public confidence on the police.

"There is higher trust now on the policemen as police visibility improves," he said, referring to the deployment of 500 police foot patrols in Metro Manila.

According to Mendoza, the foot patrols come in pairs, with some using bikes. "What is important is they are there to discourage crime and their number will increase to 1,500 in three months," he said.

Mendoza’s foot patrol program is in response to a public call for higher police visibility after he conducted a series of consultations with all sectors of society including the religious.

Mendoza said the objective of gaining confidence in the men in uniform is on track, starting with structural and systems reform within the organization.

The reforms, he said, are intended to bring back the cops’ pride in the uniform, "while public confidence is better measured by the incidence report on kidnapping as victims’ families now trust the police can help them."

"There is an increase in number of kidnap for ransom, but this is because victims now report the crime to the police," he said, adding that arrests have increased 765 percent from 18 arrests last year to 156 this year, a measure of the serious effort to curb the heinous crime.

He said total index crime decreased by 12 percent from 19,518 first six months of 2000 to 17,348 during the same period this year. Metro Manila’s crime solution efficiency was at 92.34 percent, Mendoza added.

Deputy Director General Rex Piad said statistics show that the PNP is winning at all major fronts, claiming that a creative economic package has boosted the morale in the rank and file and "that will tell on the efficiency of the police force."

As PNP top brass express confidence on their strategy to bring back glory to the PNP, Camp Crame insiders chided former PNP chief Sen. Panfilo Lacson for belittling gains in the first six months of Mendoza’s term.

"Different folks, different strokes," was how officers of the PNP reacted to Lacson’s claim that the organization was better off during his watch.

Insiders said Lacson is a politician concerned more with national surveys, while Mendoza is the true policeman with a view to long- term solutions than "cosmetic and Band-aid remedies."

"Lacson made supermen out of PAOCTF, almost replacing the entire PNP with this ad hoc body, resulting in systematic dysfunction," they added, claiming that at the end of the day morale in the PNP rank and file hit rock bottom.

"Even PNP retirees picketed the gates of Camp Crame," they said in describing the call for attention by other police units during Lacson’s time "while the PAOCTF went to town with its glory."

They charged that Lacson’s claim of success in his "no-take" policy in illegal gambling as effective only in media, because it never stopped illegal gambling.

"The truth is it even abetted illegal gambling as seen in what happened to his patron, the former president, whose fall from presidency was caused by quarrels in the division of illegal gambling spoils," the sources said.

"The order to stop jueteng operations in the middle of 1999 was to ensure the success of Bingo 2-ball, notoriety of which was earned in the Estrada impeachment process," they said, at the same time challenging Lacson to wait and see before making a verdict on Mendoza.