By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – Criminal incidents here decreased by 37.83 percent so far in 2020, from 384 cases compared to last year’s 1,015 cases.
Based on the data provided to Daily Guardian by the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), index crimes or crimes against person and property dropped by 53 incidents, or 28 percent, this year compared to last year’s 189 cases.
Index crimes include eight focus crimes – murder, homicide, physical injuries, robbery, theft, carnapping of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and rape.
Police Major Lester Leada, head of the BCPO operations unit, said that murder cases from January to June 2020 totaled to 20 cases, a 33 percent spike against last year’s tally because of drug-related incidents.
Only five cases were solved (suspects were arrested and charged) while 11 others were cleared, which means that perpetrators remain at large, although cases were filed against them.
Police Station 9 recorded the highest number of murder cases, with three shooting and two stabbing incidents, mostly due to grudges, while Police Station 4 had four drug-related shooting incidents, Leada said.
Police Station 7 posted three shooting incidents while Police Stations 3, 6, and 1 each had one shooting and stabbing cases. Police Station 2 had one shooting incident, and Police Station 8 had one stabbing incident.
Leada said that some complainants or the families of the slain victims were hesitant to file cases, especially if the incident was linked to illegal drugs. But the police continue to probe these incidents, he added.
Meanwhile, BCPO recorded 52 theft incidents, 23 physical injury cases, robbery and rape incidents with 19 cases each, homicide with two cases, and one case of motorcycle carnapping.
Despite the increase in murder cases, Leada said that crimes in general reduced because the movement of people were regulated due to the implementation of the community quarantine brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
For non-index crimes, 494 cases were recorded this year, with a reduction of 332 cases or 40 percent from 826 cases last year. These cases include police initiated operations against illegal activities and special law violators in the city.
Leada said that the police-initiated operations dropped in the first half due to their focus on the prevention of COVID-19 here since March when the community quarantine began.
He, however, said that police continue to be aggressive particularly in their campaign against illegal drugs and illegal gambling, as shown in their big drug seizures.
