Crime down in July by 447 cases

CEBU - FEWER crimes were committed in Central Visayas last July, the first month of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term, compared with the numbers in July last year, police said.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, attributed the decrease to the intensified campaign against all forms of crime, not just illegal drugs.

But he added: “Illegal drugs is the mother of all crimes.”

Total crimes, as well as the number of homicide and murder cases, also dropped in Central Visayas from January to July 2016, compared with the records in the same period in 2015, despite the deaths of 145 alleged drug peddlers since the start of the Duterte administration.

From July 1 until 6 a.m. of Aug. 22, the antiillegal drug operations of PRO 7 has led to the deaths of 69 suspected drug pushers.

But unidentified assailants killed more, with 76 alleged drug peddlers gunned down as of yesterday. The police have not yet arrested a single perpetrator.

Taliño said these killings are still being investigated.

As far as index crimes were concerned, the PRO 7 reported that index crimes like murder, homicide, theft, robbery, physical injuries, and rape have decreased to 1,220 cases, or a decrease of 27.7 percent from 1,688 cases in July 2015. Mostly down In the first seven months of the year, all index crimes (crimes against persons and properties) dropped except for one: carnapping. The number of carnapping cases went up to 540 during those months in 2016, from 508 in the same period last year, or an increase of about six percent.