More Pinoys fall prey to common crimes

More Filipinos reported being victimized by common crimes, such as robbery, burglary, or carnapping, in the past six months, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey.

The nationwide survey, which used face-to-face interviews of 1,500 respondents last March 25 to 28, found out that 6.3 percent or an estimated 1.4 million families have lost property to either street robbery, burglars or break-ins, or carnappers in the past six months.

The latest figure is slightly higher than the record-low 4.5 percent or an estimated one million Filipino families registered in the December 2016 survey.

The percentage of families that said they fell prey to street robbers in the past six months increased from 3.3 percent (754,000 families) in December to 5.3 percent (1.2 million families) at present.

Families that said they experienced home burglary barely changed from 1.8 percent (400,000 families) to 1.9 percent (435,000 families), as well as among those who said they were robbed of a motor vehicle from 0.5 percent (42,000 families) to one percent (83,000 families).

The SWS noted that street robberies across the country have increased. It was highest in Metro Manila at 12 percent from 6.7 percent, followed by the Visayas (4.7 percent from three percent), rest of Luzon (4.3 percent from 2.7 percent), and Mindanao (3.7 percent from three percent).

Families who experienced breakins went up in Metro Manila from two percent to 3.7 percent and in Mindanao from one percent to 2.3 percent. It went down however in the rest of Luzon from 2.2 percent to 1.7 percent and in the Visayas from 1.7 percent to 0.7 percent.