ILOILO City – Crime incidents in Western Visayas plummeted by 19.37 percent in the last eight months, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
Between January and August this year, the PRO-6 listed 11,641 crimes, significantly lower compared to the 14,438 incidents recorded in the same period last year.
Spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Solis of the PRO-6 said the number of incidents for the eight focus crimes also declined.
These included murder, homicide, robbery, rape, physical injury, theft, carnapping, and motornapping.
“We hope that for the next months before this year ends, it will continue to decrease,” Solis said.
According to Solis, the reasons why crime incidents decreased was because of the Enhanced Managing Police Operations (EMPO) conducted on a regular or weekly basis.
The EMPO checks and analyzes the eight focus crimes to find possible solutions and deploy police patrollers in crowded or crime-prone areas.
Another was the deployment of personnel during peak hours; and close coordination with local government units (LGUs), barangay officials and advocacy support groups like barangay-based force multipliers and other anti-crime organizations.
“We are also intensifying intelligence monitoring and arrest of wanted persons. We also increased number of police investigators with specialized training in investigations and conduct of checkpoints operation,” Solis added.
Every first week of September of every year is declared as the National Crime Prevention Week (NCPW) pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 461 dated Aug. 31, 1994.
Meanwhile, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) will only hold a limited number of activities due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to IPPO director, Police Colonel Gilbert Gorero, they will hold activities that would be beneficial to the community as a sign of gratitude for the public’s cooperation in maintaining peace and order in the province.
“We have to understand that crime prevention is almost every day. Crime prevention should be done 365 days a year, but we just highlighted the celebration by some activities like giving of generator sets to the police stations in northern Iloilo to be used in case of brown outs,” Gorero added./PN
