THE crime rate in Central Luzon decreased by 22.11 percent as of August this year, police reported during the recent Regional Peace and Order Council meeting.
Chief Superintendent Amador Corpus, Central Luzon Police director, said crime incidents went down to 26,987 in the January to August 2018 period compared to 34,647 incidents reported from January to August 2017.
Corpus said index crimes decreased by 1,707 incidents, or 27.87 percent, from 6,124 incidents.
Likewise, a decrease of 20.87 percent or 5,953 incidents was noted for non-index crimes, Corpus added.
“On the statistics per crime, there has been notable decrease on seven out of eight focus crimes, with all provinces in the region showing a decrease in incidents,” he said.
With the decrease in crime incidents, the crime clearance efficiency and crime solution efficiency went up by 6.53 percent and 5.08 percent, respectively, Corpus said.
Corpus disclosed that a total of 5,006 anti-drug operations were conducted by police units in the region from December 5, 2017 to September 17, 2018.
The operations resulted to the successful arrest of 6,916 drug personalities and death of 364 persons, and seizure of 6.5 kilos of shabu, 71.33 kilos of marijuana, 11 tablets of ecstasy, 387 firearms, and 15 explosives, Corpus said.
As of August 31, 2018, a total of 251 barangays in Central Luzon were already cleared from any form of illegal drug-related activities based on the parameters set by the Dangerous Drugs Board.
In addition, a total of 93,005 persons surrendered and 26,442 already completed the recovery and wellness program initiated and supported by the Philippine National Police.
Aside from these initiatives, the police also conducted a total of 425 operations against illegal gambling; 117 against illegal logging; 81 against illegal mining; and seven against illegal fishing.
“These accomplishments are attributed to the effectiveness of Police Regional Office 3’s Anti Criminality Campaign through the implementation of Enhanced Managing Police Operation, as well as the employment of the whole of government approach in addressing our problems in illegal drugs,” Corpus said.