Common crimes declining contrary to SWS survey result – PNP

February 24, 2019

The Philippine National Police has debunked a latest survey, showing that 1.8 million Filipino families became victims of common crimes within the past six months.

Contrary to the result of the Social Weather Stations' survey, Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac, police spokesman, in a statement on Saturday, said that the PNP's statistics showed that the number of common crimes, or more popularly known as street crimes, has been on steady decline for the past three years due to their intensified law enforcement and anti-illegal drugs operations.

Banac claimed that many of the street crimes before were perpetrated by the suspects under the influence of illegal drugs.

He noted that in another survey before, SWS said that 7 out of 10 Filipinos expressed belief that the number of drug users has decreased.

The previous survey also validated the decline in total crime volume in 2018, which went down to about 473,000 from about 520,000 incidents in 2017, according to Banac.

“So in general, crime incidence is really declining nationwide,” he said.

According to the latest SWS survey, about 1.8 million Filipino families said they they became victims of common crimes such as pickpocket or robbery of personal property, break-ins, carnapping, and physical violence within the past six months

Banac said the estimated 1.8 families was still “way too high” if to be based on the other survey.

“For example, if one family, there was one victim in a particular crime incident, it means that only about 473,000 families have been affected in 2018. Even if we double it, or that into consideration all incidents that may not have been reported to the police, the estimate of 1.8 million Filipino families supposedly affected by common crimes is still way too high,” he explained.

National Capital Region Police Office Director Guillermo Eleazar also belittled the latest survey result, saying that based on their record, the common crimes in Metro Manila went down by 7.5 percent.

SWS said street robbery cases, as well as carnapping and cases of physical violence, were highest in Metro Manila at 10 percent.

“For NCR, since July 2016, the region experienced a 54 percent index crime reduction for the first 30 months of this administrations versus the last 30 months of the previous administration,” Eleazar told The Daily Manila Shimbun in a text message.

“And 21 percent crime drop in 2018 from 2017,” he added.

The PNP assured the public that they shall vigorously enforce the law, intensify security and checkpoint operations; prevent and control crimes with utmost respect for human rights and value of life.

It also appealed for the public’s active support and vigilance to keep peace and order in the country. Ella Dionisio/DMS