PNP says sorry for wrong crime statistics

August 26, 2018

Philippine National Police spokesman Senior Superintendent Benigno Durana Jr. has apologized for the wrong information about the statistics on the country's crime rate.

This was after PNP chief Oscar Albayalde included Naga City in the top five cities with the highest crime rate. Albayalde's statement came after President Rodrigo Duterte tagged Naga City, the hometown of Vice President Leni Robredo, as a "hotbed of shabu," which the local officials and even the vice president denied.

"I'd like to make an apology because I'm the one who gave to [Albayalde] the initial list sorted out by the region," Durana said in a radio interview Sunday.

He said they immediately realized that the data were not sorted out by crime volume.

Durana made an apology after the local officials of those areas supposedly tagged with the highest crime volume denied the report and demanded for an apology from the PNP.

He said the PNP already apologized on the incident and another public apology would "do more harm than good."

"We will consider that (demand for public apology from Puerto Princesa and Isabela), but as far as we are concerned, I have made a public apology already, not once, (but) twice or thrice," he said.

On August 24, PNP clarified that Naga City was not included in the top five cities outside of Metro Manila with the highest crime volume in the first seven months of the year.

Citing records from the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), Durana said, “Among the major cities of the country outside of Metro Manila, Naga City ranked number six in the total crime volume during the period from January to July 2018."

Naga recorded 2,879 crime incidents during the period. The cities in the top five were Iloilo with 4,518, Mandaue with 4,452, Zamboanga with 3,581 and President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown of Davao with 3,071.

Naga was in 16th place if cities in the National Capital Region were included, with Quezon City on the top with 22,019 crime incidents. Ella Dionisio/DMS