By Jennifer P. Rendon
This year’s observance of the Holy Week was way too peaceful, figuratively and literally, for Western Visayas folks.
This, after the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) noted a 72.5 percent reduction in eight focus crimes – murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping/ motorcycle theft.
PRO-6 records showed that only 22 crime incidents happened between April 5 and April 11, 2020 compared to 80 cases that happened during last year’s Holy Week celebration (April 14 to April 20, 2019).
But no, the decrease might not be attributed to the people being more contemplative or prayerful this year.
Police Brigadier General Rene Pamupusan, Western Visayas police chief, ascribed the significant decrease in crime incidents to the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in all provinces and cities in the region as a measure against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
He also credited the downward crime incidents to presence of checkpoints manned by PNP personnel and the sustained patrol duties also helped in curbing crimes.
Murder cases numbered at four from a previous of six cases, or a decrease of 33.33 percent, while physical injuries dropped by 69.23 percent, from 26 to only eight cases.
There was also notable decrease in the number of rape incidents, from 12 last year to only one in 2020, or a 91.66 percent reduction.
There was no robbery case this year as opposed to 12 incidents last year.
Theft also went down – from 22 cases to only 6 cases this year or a drop of 72.72 percent.
Carnapping incident was zero.
Homicide recorded a 200 percent increase, from one case to three incidents this year.
Meanwhile, PRO-6 has solicited the cooperation of the public to report any untoward incident to the nearest police station.
It also urged the community to do its part by simply staying home.
By doing that, it won’t only help flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases but it would also be a factor for crime rate to drop down.
