/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Antique Provincial Police Office (APPO) has reported a significant reduction in the volume of this year’s index crimes in the province or crimes with physical confrontation.
In an interview Thursday, Supt. Norby Escobar, APPO Deputy Director for Operations, attributed the decrease to their campaign against loose firearms, establishment of checkpoints, and sustained campaign against illegal drugs.
“Almost all index crimes, except only for murder, really had (a) significant decrease from January to November this year,” Escobar said.
He cited only 17 cases homicide over the 11-month period this year, compared to the 26 cases in the same period of 2017.
Incidents of physical injury dropped to 124 this year from 211 in the same period last year; cases of rape declined to 34 cases this year from 45 in 2017; the incidence of robbery decreased to 14 from 29 last year; theft slid to 27 this year from 60 last year; and motor theft went down to four this year from five last year.
“For murder last year, there were only 37 cases but this 2018, there was a slight increase,” Escobar said, adding that 40 murder cases had been reported to the police this year.
Escobar added that upon their review of the murder cases, they found out that most of the cases happened in remote barangays where both the suspect and victim were drunk.
He put the crime clearance efficiency of APPO this year at 91.48 percent compared to 90.96 percent in 2017.
