EDITORIAL - Ho hum

Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Versoza has claimed in a press conference before Christmas that close to 90 percent of all crimes committed from January to November have been solved.

The disclosure would have been the perfect Christmas gift to a country that has been saddled with an increasing crime rate, but how come Filipinos are not jumping up in glee. In fact, news bearing the disclosure was buried deep in the inside pages of the newspapers.

What that means is that, in the eyes of the media, the news was almost not worth printing. And the lack of any enthusiastic public response to the news proves the media was not wrong in its lukewarm appreciation of the story.

In fact, going by what is interesting to citizens in this country, the disclosure was simply not the kind of news that makes people sit up and pay attention. And that can be due to only one thing -- people did not buy the crap.

To claim a 90 percent solution of all crimes in the country is already incredible in itself. Throw in the kind of police we have and the story becomes a downright figment of the imagination.

This is not to say that the police have not solved anything. By the same token that we find a 90 percent crime solution incredible, so do we find it just as incredible for the police not to solve anything.

But 90 percent is just beyond the realm of what is plausible, even in countries where law and order is a very strong point in their national lives. In case the point has not sunk in, 90 percent means nine out of every 10 crimes have been solved. And that is just impossible.

Maybe the national police chief was just trying a little hyperbole to shore up the sagging spirits of Filipinos. Or maybe he just had his leg pulled by his subalterns in the command conference that preceded his disclosure.

Whatever it is, the claim is untenable. It is too good to be true. The best way to approach the issue would have been to just be plain honest about it -- cite the true figures and promise to do better. If the public doesn't bite, at least the police tried to be honest.