THE nationwide crime rate has slide down by at least 55 percent since the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a police official said on Sunday, April 12.
From February 21 to March 16, the PNP recorded 3,509 crime incidents while it decreased to 1,562 crimes from March 17 to April 10, Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for operations Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar said.
The crime incidents include eight focus crimes identified as murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, carnapping of motorcycles (MC) and motor vehicles (MV).
In Luzon, the crime rate went down to 61 percent while 50 percent in Visayas and 44 percent in Mindanao.
On March 16, the government has implemented the community quarantine in the National Capital Region, a measure to contain the arising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
A day after, President Rodrigo Duterte included the entire Luzon in the lockdown, which limits the movement of the people through the suspension of mass transportation, the establishment of control points manned by the PNP as well as imposition of curfew is essentially 24 hours.
The lockdown has been extended until April 30.
Meanwhile, Eleazar, who is also the commander of the Joint Task Force Covid Shield (JTF CV Shield) enforcement arm of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID), ensured the continuous strict implementation of the quarantine guidelines as lockdown extension indicates the seriousness posed by the disease.
Eleazar said that based on the JTF CV Shield data, from March 17 to April 11, a total of 104,996 violators were apprehended across the country but the 74,604 were just warned not to repeat the offense.
More than half of those accosted were from Luzon with 62,476 violators, while 18,785 are from Visayas and 23,735 are from Mindanao.
A total of 4,853 were fined; 5,381 were charged, while charges are still being prepared against the 20,158 others.
Eleazar said a total of 679 individuals allegedly engaged in hoarding and profiteering activities have been nabbed while total of 8,014 public transport vehicles were apprehended by authorities during the said period.
He reminded the cops and soldiers manning the control points not to lower their guard against persons who are not authorized to go out.
Under the enhance community quarantine only health workers, those working in supermarkets and drug stores and delivery vehicles were allowed to pass through checkpoints aside from others who was designated to buy the necessities for their respective families.
The task force established a total of 115 dedicated control points in strategic locations nationwide manned by the Highway Patrol Group to ensure the unhampered delivery of goods and cargoes. (SunStar Philippines)