By Noel Punzalan/PNA
COTABATO CITY — Crime volume in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has dropped by as much as 20 percent this year, a top police official said.
In a statement released Friday, Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, ARMM police director, said that of a total of 2,378 crimes recorded from January to November this year, 900 are index crimes and 1,478 were non-index crimes.
“The current crime figure is lower by 592 crime incidents or some 20 percent down compared to last year’s 2,970 total number of crimes committed during the same period,” Mijares said.
He said the drop could be attributed to the effective crime solution strategy employed by the ARMM police force.
In particular, Mijares said the volume of index and non-index crimes decreased by 24.30 percent and 17.02 percent, respectively. Among the index crimes recorded were murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft and carnapping incidents.
In particular, he said murder cases went down by 18.90 percent, homicide (19.51 percent), physical injury (8.46 percent), rape (2.27 percent), robbery (32.29 percent), theft (51.06 percent), car theft (50 percent), and motorcycle theft (46.42 percent).
Mijares noted that non-index crimes committed are more on “violations of ordinances and special laws.” Mijares lauded the increasing public trust in law enforcers in the region, such as people reporting situations even before crimes are committed in their communities.
“The public’s vigilance was a vital key to reduced crime incidents across the region,” he emphasized.
Moreover, he also lauded the men and women under his command, who performed their assigned tasks in all levels of security, crime prevention, public relations, and anti-drug programs.
Mijares vowed that the police will continue with its fight against all forms of criminality for a more peaceful and progressive ARMM.
