Crime volume in Palawan has consistently declined from 2015 to 2018, attributed to the Provincial Police Office’s (PPO) campaign against illegal narcotics and the deployment of 90 percent of the total number of its personnel to perform patrol duties or police visibility, a ranking police official said.
PPO deputy provincial director for operations P/Lt. Col. Joey Jonathan Bagayao reported Tuesday during the Palawan Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (PTF-ELCAC) Multi-Sectoral Security Summit at the Provincial Capitol that the trend line for index crimes or crimes against persons and properties decreased from 856 in 2015 to 617 in 2016, 502 in 2017, and 384 in 2018.
The non-index crimes or violations of special laws and local ordinances went down also from 1,228 in 2015 to 1127 in 2016, 911 in 2017, and 824 in 2018.
“There has been a significant decrease in the number of crime incidents in Palawan. This is the real index of peace and order situation in the area and we attributed the decrease to the PNP’s campaign against illegal drugs and the deployment of the 90 percent of our total number of personnel deployed for police visibility,” Bagayao said.
Bagayao made the report during the Palawan Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) Multi-Sectoral Security Summit at the Provincial Capitol.
Bagayao said that the January to September 2018 comparative index crime volume of 312 declined to 244 incidents or 21.79 percent for the same period in 2019. The non-index crime of 642 from January to September 2018, on the other hand, dropped to 502 incidents or 21.81 percent for the same period this year.
“In total, it’s a decrease of 208 crime incidents or 21.8 percent of crime incidents for 2019 compared to the same period last year,” he said.
“In our assessment, the province is generally peaceful. The occurrence of the crimes is random there are no specific spot incidents transpired, no patterns of commission and no time significance. The crime volume of the province is almost 17 percent only of the total crime volume of MIMAROPA while 0.0027% in the whole country,” he said.
Crime volume per MPS
For crime volume reported by municipal police stations (MPS), Bagayao said towns with large populations are where crimes frequently occur such as El Nido with 105 index crime incidents, Narra with 88, Taytay with 81, and Roxas with 69 from January to September 2019.
Bagayao said these figures have already significantly declined from the same period in 2018 when El Nido had 121 index crime incidents, Narra with 126, Roxas with 135 or the highest, and Taytay with 103.
“Most MPS managed to reduce the number of index crime incidents except in some towns that have minimal increases,” he said.
Distribution and comparison of index crime
Bagayao said that in the distribution and comparison of index crime from January to September 2018 compared to the same period this year, physical injuries decreased from 104 to 65; rape from 86 to 55; murder from 44 to 41, and homicide from nine to six.
“Physical injuries usually transpire during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 5 p.m. until midnight. The majority occurs in residential areas located in remote places,” he said.
He also said rape, particularly incest rape, has significantly reduced in the number of incidents because of the intervention that the police are conducting with local social welfare offices on the conduct of information, education, and communications campaigns to prevent the possibility of being victimized.
Bagayao said three of the murder incidents in 2019 were allegedly perpetrated by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) with the use of firearms.
“One was in Rizal in January, one in Roxas last March, and one in Quezon,” he said.
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