IT’S almost hard to believe, considering what we’ve been reading, hearing or seeing on the news lately.
But hey, based on the figures released by the Police Regional Office 7, the volume of crime, whether committed against persons or properties (index) or violations of special laws like those against illegal drugs, gambling and loose firearms (non-index), in the first nine months of this year has dropped.
By some 14 percent.
Let’s revisit the numbers, shall we?
Murders fell from 506 last year to 497 this year, or a drop of 1.78 percent. It’s not that much, but a decrease is still a decrease so I’ll take it any day.
Not many people may have noticed it because of the several high-profile killings that have happened.
After all, it’s not every year that a town’s vice mayor is shot a few meters from a courthouse and several months later, his uncle, the mayor, is killed by several gunmen inside his office in the Municipal Hall. Or two members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 7 getting killed in broad daylight a few weeks apart. Or a former Lagtang, Talisay City barangay captain getting riddled with bullets inside a house he rented in Simala, Sibonga months after his own son, a Lagtang councilman, was fatally ambushed along the south coastal road.
Then, you have the five men who were killed by unidentified assailants in Barangay Malubog in Cebu City earlier this month. One of the two survivors claims that their abductors were men in uniform.
So I don’t blame you for having second thoughts.
But let’s look at the overall picture.
Index crimes, and that includes theft, robbery and physical injury, fell from last year’s 9,667 to 6,932. That’s a difference of 2,735 crime incidents. And let’s admit it, that’s a considerable drop.
Of course, the report doesn’t say why this is so. But let’s just assume that the increase in police visibility has helped. That maybe having them around is not so bad after all.
In other words, some local officials should refrain from blaming the police for some of the killings because it’s not good. It confuses the public. For the record, the police are here to serve and protect us. Not to kill us. Let’s just make that clear.
One particular official has been awfully quiet lately. He dared accuse the police of having perpetrated some of the murders, allegations which PRO 7 Director Debold Sinas and Cebu City Police Office Director Royina Garma quickly denied. And then there was the chastisement from the President himself.
What’s my point here? These numbers show that the police have been doing their jobs. So let them.