CEBU, Philippines - Police Regional Office-7 reported a decrease in the region's crime rate by 25.5 percent from January to June this year compared to the same period last year.
Superintendent Rex Derilo, deputy chief of the Regional Intelligence Division-7 said they only recorded a total of 29,553 incidents in Central Visayas from January to June this year compared to last year's 39,649 incidents.
He said the figure includes the incidents reported in blotter entry form in barangays and police stations.
Out of the 29,553 recorded cases, 16,598 or 55% were index crimes while 13,355 were considered as non-index crimes.
Index crimes are those that involve crimes against persons such as murder, homicide, physical injury and rape, and crimes against property such as robbery, theft, carnapping or carjacking and cattle rustling.
Non-index crimes, on the other hand, are violations of special laws such as illegal logging or local ordinances.
According to Derilo, the major factor that contributed to the decrease in crime volume is PRO-7's comprehensive implementation of the Police Integrated Patrol System.
PIPS includes the conduct of random and simultaneous checkpoints, saturation drives, and establishing police visibility in crime prone areas such as conducting foot patrol.
All police offices under PRO-7 noted a significant decrease in their respective crime volumes except for Cebu City Police Office.
From January to June last year, CCPO recorded a total of 5,451 cases, which is lesser than this year's 6,126 reported cases.
Despite the increase in crime volume, CCPO director Noli Romana said reports on street crimes in the city significantly declined.
The series of traffic-related incidents this year contributed to the increase in the total crime volume, Romana said, saying that most of the cases were only damage to properties.
Also, on incidence of theft, a victim no longer wants to file charges against the suspect once the items are recovered or returned to him or her, but the police still record the case, which adds to the figure.
Another thing is that children in conflict with the law or the so-called juvenile delinquents who figure in crimes are released from police custody once apprehended as provided by the New Juvenile Justice Law, but police still record the case again adding to the statistics.
Nevertheless, PRO-7 officials said they will still do their job to address the security problem in the region. (FREEMAN)