Despite Duterte’s statement, PNP says crimes involving motorcycle-riding suspects went down

October 23, 2020

A police official on Friday said there is no surge in crimes involving motorcycle-riding suspects (MRS) as they recorded a 57 percent decrease in these incidents.

Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for administration, said intensified security and health safety measures during the past seven months have resulted in the reduction of criminal cases involving riding-in- tandem suspects.

Eleazar said  PNP data contradicts perception MRS-related criminal activities increased.

He said these cases went down from 1,864 to 784.

Last October 14, President Rodrigo Duterte has raised concern over the surge in the number of street crimes, particularly holdups using motorcycles, as the government further opens the economy amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.

Duterte ordered the training and deployment of policemen in civilian clothes from the Highway Patrol Group.

“In the past, motorcycle-riding criminals were a big peace and order headache. But we were able to counter their illegal activities in the past four years especially in the past seven months before the March 17 implementation of the first community quarantine where the daily average of MRS-related criminal activities was only eight nationwide,” said Eleazar.

“Comes the community quarantine, the already-reduced MRS-related criminal activities further declined to a national daily average of four. So there was really a significant improvement not only on illegal activities of motorcycle-riding suspects but also the peace and order situation nationwide,” he added.

Eleazar said because there were more policemen at the community level, theft of motorcycles went down ny 62 percent in the past 220 days.

He noted stolen motorcycles are usually being used in criminal activities.

Data also showed there was 46 percent reduction in the eight focus crimes from March 17 to October 22 this year compared to the same period before the community quarantine.

In cases of murder and homicide involving motorcycle-riding suspects, Eleazar said there were a 41 percent reduction or from 505 to 300 cases and 48 percent reduction from 25 to 13 cases, respectively.

Robbery cases declined 76 percent or from 584 to 143 cases while theft went down 74 percent or from 227 to 58 cases.

Due to the easing of quarantine restrictions as more people were allowed to go out, Eleazar said crime incidents are still low.

“We are not putting our guard down and we will continue to implement strategies to run after them and deny them the opportunity to strike,” he said.

 Eleazar said the Highway Patrol Group (HPG)  trained a total of 43 personnel of the PNP’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) on tactical motorcycle riding.

The HPG training program will accommodate more SAF personnel and would also include local policemen.

“These are but the aggressive measures that we are doing to maintain the biggest decline in criminal activities that we have been achieving for more than seven months now,” he said.

“We will not allow motorcycle-riding criminals and all the criminal elements to normalize their illegal activities,” Eleazar added. Ella Dionisio/DMS