The Catanduanes Police Provincial Office has reported a significant decline of nearly 11 percent in the number of crimes last year compared to 2018.
Police Provincial Director Col. Paul Abay disclosed in his command’s accomplishment report for the past year that overall, crime incidents in the island province decreased from 1,121 in 2018 to 1,011 in 2019, or a drop of 10.89%.
Overall crime solution efficiency increased to 76.76% from the previous 68.60% while Crime Clearance Efficiency also was up to 92.28% compared to 78.95% in 2018, he added.
Of the total, Index crimes accounted for 147, which is nearly 75% less than the 257 incident in 2018. Index crimes consist of murder, homicide, physical injury (serious and less serious), carnapping/motornapping, robbery, theft, rape, and special complex crimes.
Eighty-nine (89) of the index crimes were committed against persons, broken down as follows (with 2018 numbers in parentheses): murder, 11 (7); homicide, 8 (6), physical injury, 28 (57), rape, 41 (39), kidnapping with rape, 1 (0).
There was a huge drop in crimes against property, with just 57 incidents compared to 148 in 2018, or a drop of 61 percent.
There were 29 robberies compared to 37 in 2018 while only 27 incidents of thieveries were reported as against the 89 in the previous year. Only one carnapping, that of a motorcycle, was recorded (there were 22 in 2018) and only one robbery with homicide.
In non-index crimes, which include violation of special laws and the Revised Penal Code not categorized as index crimes, the number of incidents increased to 576 from the 528 recorded in 2018.
In the heightened campaign against illegal drugs, the Catanduanes police filed a total of 54 cases before the court following the conduct of 44 operations that led to the arrest of 48 persons and the confiscation of 71.421 grams of shabu and 23.9347 grams of marijuana.
The bulk of the operations came from Virac (23), Bato (9), and San Andres (5), the report stated.
The police also recovered a total of 8,050.4 grams of cocaine in blocks found floating at sea by fishermen in Bagamanoc and Baras towns. The drug haul was turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional office.
In the campaign against illegal gambling, 37 operations in all 11 towns resulted in the arrest of 126 persons and the confiscation of 33,196.50 in bet money, as well as the filing of 37 cases in court.
One hundred thirty-eight (138) suspected illegal fishermen were also apprehended, with the police recovering 15 motorized banca, a fishing vessel and one banca along with 12 compressors and 754 kilos of fish. A total of 28 cases were filed in court.
On the other hand, 73 people who violated forestry laws were arrested last year, with the operations leading to the seizure of 4,237 board feet of lumber and 12 chainsaws. 53 new cases were filed in court.
111 firearms with expired licenses were surrendered by their owners last year, with Virac (63) and Bato (16) accounting for the majority of the weapons.
The Kontra Boga campaign also resulted in the arrest of 22 persons and the confiscation of 26 unregistered, homemade or “paltik” handguns.
Ramping up their campaign to arrest those wanted by the courts, the police managed to arrest one regional-level wanted person, 11 provincial MWPs, 16 municipal MWPs, along with 271 others.
In an interview at his office at Camp Francisco Camacho last week, PD Abay said the recent arrest of two persons included in the top 10 list of the provincial watchlist of illegal drug personalities was not due to any pressure from the higher headquarters.
He averred that it was just coincidental that they were apprehended as part of the heightened campaign against illegal drugs, particularly those in the priority list of the police.