Duterte, citing survey, says crime makes people afraid
HELP AGAINST CRIME President Duterte’s anticrime campaign has drawn help from foreign governments, like Japan, which donated these patrol cars that were turned over in January by Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda.—MALACAÑANG PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday sought to highlight results of a 3-month-old survey showing that street robberies committed against women were on the rise to answer critics accusing him of violating human rights in his antidrug and anticrime campaigns.
In a speech during the mass oath-taking in Cagayan de Oro City of at least 2,000 Northern Mindanao village chiefs, the President cited results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey from March 23 to 27 that he said showed that the number of men who fell victims to street robberies fell by 14 points but rose by 10 points among women.
The survey results, he said, had been posted on the SWS website on June 21 and showed that among 4.6 percent of the total population victimized by street robbery, 59 percent were women and only 38 percent were men.
Women vulnerable
Also, the President said, the survey found that more women (50 percent) had been victims of physical violence than men (43 percent).
The number of men falling victims to physical violence fell by 18 points but rose by 39 points among women, he added, still citing the survey results.
The President said the survey also showed that 6.6 percent of families, or 1.5 million, had reported falling victims to common crimes like theft, break-ins, car theft and physical violence in the last six months of 2018.
It also showed that at least 1.4 million families reported losing valuables to robbers in the same period, the President added.
“The people are afraid. They’re afraid to go out at night,” the President said.
“And you have the statistics,” he added, pointing to the SWS survey.
“Fear of burglary, fear of unsafe streets and presence of drug addicts, those are the people’s fears,” he said. —Jigger Jerusalem
