Crime stats down in Cordillera

CRIME statistics from 2016 to present continue to go down according to the Police Regional Office Cordillera (PRO - COR).

PRO- COR said the 12,000 crime volume in 2016 went down to 5,000 as of October 2019 with index crimes recording more than 8,000 incidents in 2016 as compared to 1,200 index crimes this year.

In his report to the fourth quarter meeting of the Joint Regional Development and Peace and Order Council meeting in Baguio City, PRO - COR operations officer Colonel Homer Penecilla indicated Baguio City and Benguet Province remains the major contributors to crime statistics in the last three years.

Penecilla said there were 34,000 incidents recorded from 2016 to date with Baguio City and Benguet contributing 15,609 and 10,206 respectively.

“Of the total of 8,327 index crimes since 2016, the major contributor is the City of Baguio with more than 4,000 and 2,000 plus for the Province of Benguet,” Penecilla reported.

Meanwhile, the average monthly crime rate from January to October 2019 was at 6.42 incidents per 100,000 population, while index crimes were recorded at 1.46 per 100,000 population per month.

“From 2016 to October this year, 387 shooting incidents were recorded with 185 happening in the Province of Abra. The shooting incident per month per province shows the province of Abra registering 1.61 shooting incidents per month for every 100,000 population which translates to four incidents per month with a population of about 250,000,” Penecilla added.

Of the 385 shooting incidents, 200 of these were murder, 41 were homicide and 138 resulted into physical injuries, with the possible motives mostly personal and family feud at 103, heated argument at 121, possible gun for hire at 93, 35 were drug related incidents, 8 political, and the remaining due to various reasons.

Most of the victims were categorized as farmers at 103, government employees at 44, drivers at 34, jobless at 23, businessmen at 24.

“On issues and concern with respect to shooting incidents, it was observed that these occurred due to the proliferation of loose firearms specifically in Abra. This is why the PNP/AFP and NBI should intensify the campaign against loose firearms, for the LGU’s to have an advocacy with respect to a gun free community, and for the possible creation of a watch list to identify personalities having firearms coming from locals who would know those having firearms in their communities,” Penecilla explained.