PNP Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
President Benigno Aquino III continues to have confidence in national police chief Nicanor Bartolome despite the recent spate of violent crimes in the country, Malacañang said Friday.
Secretary Edwin Lacierda, President Aquino’s spokesperson, said that while high profile crimes had been highlighted in the media, statistics showed a decrease in criminal incidents “on a year-to-year basis.”
Lacierda’s remarks came a day after one person was killed and five others wounded when armed men robbed a bank teller being escorted by security guards as he was about to deliver a bastful of money to a foreign exchange shop at Robinsons Galleria mall in Ortigas.
Aside from that, almost daily there have been incidents of murder and robberies committed by motorcycle-riding perpetrators.
Lacierda answered in the affirmative when asked if Mr. Aquino continued to have confidence in Bartolome.
“In terms of having the trust and confidence of the President, yes, the present leadership and Philippine National Police Director General Bartolome… has the confidence of the
President,” Lacierda said in a news briefing in Malacañang.
“Objectively speaking, there’s only one basis to see whether criminality has gone down and that is the statistics. And the statistics prove that criminality has gone down,” he said.
“The other thing is perception, but that’s another matter,” Lacierda said.
President Aquino said at last week’s graduation rites at the Philippine National Police Academy that he would be the first to prove wrong those who continued to doubt the efficiency of the PNP. He cited statistics that showed crime incidents had gone down to about 247,000 cases by 2011, from a high of more than 500,000 in 2009.
“The 2,200 cases of car thefts in 2010 went down to just 966, or decreased by more than half in 2011,” President Aquino said Saturday last week.
Lacierda meanwhile reiterated the President’s stand against the reimposition of the death penalty.