Sunday, August 24, 2008 Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga are safest places in Cordillera By Ernie N. Olson Jr. and Mau Victa
APAYAO, Ifugao and Kalinga were reported to be the safest Cordillera provinces.
This was revealed during the monthly regional command conference of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, which was presided over by Chief Superintendent Eugene Martin.
"But if you are afraid for your life, try to avoid Abra, Baguio, and Benguet. If you are afraid that your things may be stolen, then avoid Baguio," Martin explained.
Police records showed that more than 70 percent of all index crimes against property region-wide, mostly robbery and theft cases, were committed in Baguio City. Robbery and theft cases committed within Baguio for the period was pegged at 308.
Martin said this was expected because Baguio remains to be the business and tourism center of the region.
But most of the murder cases region-wide were recorded in Abra, after 49 of the 91 cases recorded for the period was reportedly committed there. Kalinga was a far second with 19 murder cases followed by Benguet with nine cases.
Apayao ranked fourth with seven murder cases, while Baguio City, the most populous in the region, was fifth. Ifugao and Mountain Province had only one murder case each.
The lone case in Mountain Province involved Paracelis Mayor Cesar Rafael, who was killed in his hometown last Christmas Day.
When it comes to homicide cases, Benguet had the most during the same period with 25, followed by Baguio with 19. Abra reportedly had fewer unpremeditated killings with five cases.
More than half of the 375 physical injury cases within the region were reported in Baguio, followed by Benguet with 81, Abra with 42, and Mountain Province with 36.
Martin said even with the high-profile cases, the total number of index and non-index crimes reported was lower than that of last year.
He said index crimes or those against persons or property was pegged at 1,078 cases. "Of these, more than 85 percent were solved," he said.
Rape, another index crime, was concentrated in Benguet, Baguio and Ifugao which accounted for 64 of the 99 cases reported in the region.
Baguio had the most number of index crimes with 465 followed by Benguet with 204 cases, out of the regional total of 1,078.
Most of the cases in Baguio were crimes against property like robbery (86 out of the total 154) and theft (222 out of 285).
