MIMAROPA sleuths top homicide crime solver
By Aaron Recuenco
Police investigators in MIMAROPA (Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) were ranked number one among all the police regional offices nationwide in terms of solving homicide cases.
RPIO MIMAROPA logo (Twitter/ MANILA BULLETIN)
Based on the data from the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the MIMAROPA regional police got a rating of 81.67 percent in crime solution efficiency on homicide cases.
Western Visayas regional police came second while Eastern Visayas regional police landed third based on the ranking during the recent Oversight Committee meeting at Camp Crame.
The assessment came while the PNP is still reeling from the impact of allegations of unsolved killings which critics relate to the ongoing war on drugs.
Based on the PNP data, a total of 22,983 homicide cases were reported from July 1 in 2016—or the start of the war on drugs—up to May 21 this year.
Of the 420 homcide cases reported in MIMAROPA, only 77 cases remain unsolved and remain under investigation. The rest were either solved or cleared.
Based on the parameters of the DIDM, a crime is considered ‘solved’ when the case has been filed in court and at least one suspects in the crime has been arrested and locked-up in jail while the crime is considered ‘cleared’ when the case has been filed in court and the suspect was identified but still at-large.
Chief Supt. Emmanuel Luis Licup, director of the MIMAROPA regional police, said the 420 cases involved all the killing that occurred in the region since July 1, 2016—either drug-related or non-drug related.
“Of the 420 cases of homicide, six of them turned out to be drug-related. And of that six incidents, we have already solved three,” said Licup.
“Most of the non-drug related cases stemmed from various motives and circumstances such as arguments and misunderstanding, personal grudge, land dispute, love triangle, family dispute, atrocities by threat groups, business rivalry, road rage, unpaid debt, indiscriminate firing, and revenge,” he added.
Licup vowed to maintain the good standing of the MIMAROPA regional police in crime-solving, as he ordered all police commanders to continue focusing on training investigators.
He said his order also comes with an instruction to also focus on crime prevention measures such as police visibility.
“Commanders here were tasked to continuously review, assess and develop initiative and specific interventions in minimizing the occurrence of homicide incidents while at the same time increasing the resolution of homicide cases,” said Licup.
It was recalled that the PNP has been accused as either responsible or helpless in the death of suspected drug pushers and users since the drug war was launched. The PNP leadership, however, said only a small fraction of homicide cases are drugs-related.(Aaron Recuenco)