Facade of the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. (Photo from the PNP website)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines had a lower incidence of index crimes from Jan. 1 to Nov. 13 this year compared to the same period last year, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported on Wednesday.
In data shared with reporters, the PNP said there were only 34,050 index crimes reported until Nov. 13 this year, which is 2.66% or 932 crimes lower than 34,982 reported in the same period in 2021.
The incidence of index crimes went down all across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
In Luzon, the total number of reported index crimes is 19,885 in the said period this year, which is 0.85% or 171 crimes lower than the 20,056 recorded in the same period last year.
In the Visayas, the total number of reported index crimes is 7,095 in the said period this year, which is 6.85% or 522 crimes lower than the 7,617 recorded in the same period last year.
In Mindanao, the total number of reported index crimes is 7,070 in the said period this year, which is 3.27% or 239 crimes lower than the 7,309 recorded in the same period last year.
Uptick in theft, robbery
However, the incidence of theft and robbery had an uptick.
The reports of theft have increased to 11,295, which is 9.19% more than the 10,344 recorded in the same period last year.
The total number of robberies this year is 4,331, which is 0.30% more than the 4,318 recorded in the same period last year.
Apart from that, all the focus crimes — such as murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, and car theft — have decreased.
- Murder: from 4,209 to 3,706 cases (11.95% decrease)
- Homicide: from 997 to 877 cases (12.04% decrease)
- Physical injury: from 4,704 to 4,551 cases (3.25% decrease)
- Rape: from 8, 225 to 7,197 cases (12.50% decrease)
- Car theft (motor vehicles): from 319 to 250 cases (21.63% decrease)
- Car theft (motorcycles): from 1,676 to 1,637 (2.33% decrease)
Index crimes refer to crimes that are serious in nature that occur with sufficient frequency and regularity to the extent that they can serve as an indication of the crime situation.
Authorities consider only murder, homicide, physical injuries (including frustrated murder and homicide), car theft, robbery, theft, and rape as index crimes.