Duterte’s anti-crime efforts gain ‘significant strides’ — Palace
THE decline in the number of families victimized by common crimes showed “significant strides” in President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-crime campaign and a big “boost to the morale” of law enforcers, his spokesman said.
“Crimes continue to decline,” Secretary Harry Roque said in a statement, following a survey, which showed that fewer families have reported falling victims to common crimes.
The first quarter poll of the Social Weather Station (SWS), released on Friday, showed that 6.6 percent or 1.5 million families fell victims to common crimes such as pickpocket or robbery of personal property, break-ins, carjacking and physical violence.
This figure was one point lower than the 1.7 million families (7.6 percent) victimized by crime average in December 2017.
“Indeed, significant strides have been made in our campaign against illegal drugs and crimes as families reported fewer break-ins and carnapping,” Roque said.
He also cited that fear of burglary, fear of unsafe streets and the presence of drug addicts in the neighborhood had likewise dropped, citing the results of the survey.
“Such public sentiment is certainly a big boost to the morale of our law enforcement agencies as we vow to continue to ensure the safety of all Filipinos,” Roque said.
More than 4,000 people, who allegedly resisted police raids, have been killed in the anti-drug war since the President took office in 2016.
Human rights groups have denounced what they called drug-related extrajudicial killings and believed that unknown assailants who had killed thousands more were corrupt officers or vigilantes working for the police.
But the Palace has reiterated that alleged drug-related killings were not state-sanctioned and promised that police would act within the law.
The latest campaign of the Duterte administration to prevent crime was against “tambay” (loiterers) in the streets.
Roque said the government’s campaign against “tambay” was part of crime prevention to clean the streets of criminals.
“I just want to clarify that this campaign against tambay is really part of crime prevention,” Roque said in a Palace media briefing.
Roque said the campaign was also in line with the role of the President as chief implementor of the law of the land “to increase police visibility and to enforce strictly existing ordinances.”
“We need to bring the message in the community that our police are roaming around so that those criminals will stop doing crimes,” he said.
Roque also disputed reports that 7,000 people were arrested everyday as a result of the “anti-tambay” drive.
“We don’t have the space for that, given that we have overcrowding jail facilities. I think it’s physically impossible for one day to accommodate 7,000,” he said. CATHERINE VALENTE
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