(Eagle News) — Index crimes have gone down by 28.57 percent because of the government’s fight to curb illegal drugs, government data released during the recent #RealNumbersPH forum showed.
The data compared index crimes committed from July 2015 to March 2016 during the administration of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to the index crimes committed in the same eight month time frame, July 2016 to March 2017, under the administration of current President Rodrigo Duterte.
And the data showed a steady decline in crime rate.
“Today there is no holding back, let the truth be told,” said Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Ramon Apolinario during the keynote speech for the forum where he spoke on behalf of PNP chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa.
From the 134,958 index crimes recorded during the Aquino administration from July 2015 to March 2016, the numbers dropped to 96,398 in the first eight months of the Duterte administration, or from July 2016 to March 2017.
The figures came from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). Index crimes are those “crimes serious in nature and which occur with sufficient frequency and regularity such that they can serve as an index to the crime situation” This includes “homicide, murder, physical injury, rape, robbery and theft.”
The “real numbers” released during the forum also showed that the actual number of drug users and pushers who have surrendered had reached more than 1.2 million, or 1,266,966 persons to be exact. Of the number, 88,940 drug pushers who surrendered.
Because of the government’s drug war, there was a marked 26.45 percent reduction of the estimated total drug market, the government data said.
This was particularly important because of the number of drug pushers who have surrendered, thus cutting the number of drug peddlers on the streets.
There are police casualties too, says PNP official
“The war on drugs has brought about remarkable results,” Apolinario said even as he stressed that the war had also victimized some of their police personnel who died in shootouts with drug criminals.
He said that the PNP also hoped it would continue to identify its weaknesses to better respond to the war against drugs and criminality.
But the reality was people generally feel safer in their homes and on the streets because of the government’s intensified campaign against criminality, interviews of ordinary people aired during the forum showed.
Apolinario said that #RealNumbers forum “jibes well with our media relations policy of transparency on any and all police related information regarding matters of public interest.”
He said it was also the “perfect opportuity to portray the true picture and accurate information as far as the national drug campaign is concerned.”
“We have previously experienced different interpretation and opinion of available data gathered” which according to him “very seldom” portrayed the prevailing situation of the community.
