Over 24,000 crime suspects arrested in 2011, says PNP

MANILA, Philippines—Some 24,300 crime suspects were arrested by the Philippine National Police in 2011, with 102 of them belonging to the “Top Most Wanted” list, officials said Saturday.

The PNP said nine of the suspects resisted arrest and were killed as a result.

Of the total arrested, 967  belonged to 203 organized crime groups across the country, the PNP said.

In a statement,  Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome said the PNP’s operational units intend to mount an intensified campaign in 2012 to capture more criminal offenders wanted by the law.

Each year, the PNP receives an average of 40,000 arrest warrants from the different branches of the judiciary, according to PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr.

“The backlog of unserved court processes that have accumulated over the years is the subject of continuing law enforcement efforts by the PNP,” he said.

Cruz cited innovations in the PNP such as “computer-aided anti-crime methods designed to assist police units in monitoring and documentation of court processes and records of wanted persons.”

He said the PNP expects to connect all police units to a nationwide electronic network linked to a database of all wanted persons and arrested criminal offenders, as well as crime records in police blotters.

Access of PNP units to the “e-blotter,” “e-warrant” and “e-rogue” databases is seen to lead to the arrest of as many as 1,700 most wanted persons every month, Cruz said.