PNP trains eyes on 5 Metro ‘hotspots’ for street crimes

Five busy areas tagged as “hotspots” for street crimes will be getting extra attention from the Philippine National Police (PNP) from now on.

PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima identified these areas— which he described as prone to robbery and holdup incidents—as Aurora-Edsa in Cubao, Quezon City; Monumento in Caloocan City; Baclaran and Edsa-Taft in Pasay City; and the University Belt area in Manila.

“There are five places in Metro Manila that we’ll focus on to reduce street crimes. The public has to feel the presence of their police,” Purisima said, adding that more law enforcers would be deployed to these areas to conduct patrols.

Asked by reporters why Quiapo was not among the five hotspots, the PNP chief said that the area was just traffic-prone.

Purisima, meanwhile, urged victims of street crimes to report their experience to the police since the PNP was in need of more accurate data in planning the deployment of its men.

“We really need these reports. If the data is not accurate, we will focus on other crimes,” he said.

The PNP chief cited a survey done last year which estimated that about 70 per cent of street robberies and other crimes went unreported.

Purisima said many victims were discouraged by the tedious process of reporting their experience, following up their case and attending court hearings should the suspect be arrested and charged.

According to him, the police often have to verify actual crime incidents with barangay officials since some law enforcers deliberately tamper with the police blotter to reduce the crime rate in their area.

Purisima said that he had asked the Directorate for Police Community Relations (DPCR) to find ways to make reporting a crime easier.

“I have already tasked the DPCR to find ways like upgrading a Twitter account where [people] can report incidents so that these will be recorded and then we can act appropriately. We have to know where the crimes are,” he added.

Based on data collected by the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), the National Capital Region registered the highest total crime volume nationwide in the first quarter of the year.

Metro Manila accounted for 21 percent (31,022) of the total 145,056 crime volume in the country for the same period, followed by Western Visayas (18,531 or 13 percent) and Calabarzon (17,805 or 12 percent).

The region also posted the highest number of index crimes or crimes against persons or property nationwide from January to March this year with 6,999 out of a total 73,480 cases. It also recorded 6,597 cases of murder, homicide, physical injury and rape on top of 10,402 cases of robbery, theft and stolen vehicles. With a report from Inquirer Research