Saturday, January 26, 2008 Police's achievements for 2007 lauded
INTERIOR Secretary Ronaldo Puno on Friday commended the Philippine National Police (PNP) for effectively carrying out its task of protecting the people from crime and violence last year as shown by a 72 percent decrease in criminal incidents compared to the previous year.
Puno noted that under the leadership of PNP Director Oscar Calderon and his successor, Avelino Razon Jr., crime incidents fell from 60,448 cases in the first three quarters of 2006 to 16,710 cases during the same period in the following year, representing a crime efficiency solution rate of 88.4 percent for the entire 2007.
Among the high-profile criminal incidents that the PNP effectively handled in 2007 were the explosion that rocked the Glorietta 2 shopping mall in Makati City, the bombing at the House of Representatives complex in Quezon City and the Manila Peninsula Hotel siege led by detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
According to a PNP, 2,384 incidents of street crimes (petty theft, swindling, bukas kotse, snatching) were recorded for the January to September 2007 period, of which 2,217 cases were resolved, leading to a solution efficiency rate of 92.9 percent, which is higher than the 88.2 percent posted in 2006.
The PNP impressive crime solution efficiency rate included a 60 percent drop in the number of kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) cases in the first three quarters of 2007, from 30 cases in 2006 to only 12 cases in 2007.
Twenty-five alleged suspects in several KFR cases were arrested and appropriate criminal charges were subsequently filed in court.
It also included the accomplishments of Task Force Usig, an ad hoc body assigned to investigate cases of unexplained killings.
The exhaustive work of this task force has thus far led to the filing of 78 cases in court, four convictions and 25 arrests against suspects in the murders of political activists and journalists.
In 2007, the PNP reported that 337 crime syndicates and groups were neutralized, 794 persons were arrested and 445 cases were filed in court.
These included the apprehension of 115 top most wanted persons with rewards on their heads and 21,156 other wanted persons.
"We laud the PNP for continuing to score significant gains in our total war against criminality," Puno said.
"We are confident that the PNP, under the helm of PNP Chief Razon, will again do an outstanding job of maintaining peace and order in 2008," he added.
In the campaign against car theft, the PNP had apprehended members of notorious groups like the Apalit Chop-Chop Gang, Lagman Carnapping Group and Eskwela Group that led to the filing of 129 cases in court.
Illegal gambling incidents also decreased by 43 percent in the first three quarters of last year, from 4,827 in January to September 2006 to 2,763 in the same period in 2007.
Anti-bank and armored car robbery operations conducted by the PNP led to the arrest and filing of cases in court against 20 suspects and the resolution of 10 robbery incidents in the first three quarters of 2007.
In the war against illegal drugs, 15,228 operations were conducted in 2007, in which 17,712 pushers and users were arrested.
Dried marijuana leaves and plantations worth P74.5 million were confiscated, five shabu laboratories were dismantled, and a total of 13,384 drug-related cases were filed in court.
Also, a total of 931,895 million board feet of logs and lumber worth P21.666 million were confiscated, 618 felons were arrested and 152 cases related to illegal logging were filed in court.
Smuggling incidents dropped by 61 percent from January to September 2007 compared to the same period in 2006 --from 123 cases in 2006 to 48 cases in 2007.
The PNP also confiscated 4,398 loose guns, arrested 4,127 persons and filed 2,815 cases related to violations of Presidential Decree (PD) 1866 or the law against the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition last year. (VR/Sunnex)
