PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Crime incidence in Palawan had dropped by 20 percent in 2017 due to the enforcement of “Oplan Tokhang” and “Double Barrel Reloaded”, the chief of the Palawan Police said late Monday.
Total crime volume declined to 1,485 last year from 1,744 in 2016, which “we owe to ‘Oplan Tokhang’ and ‘Double Barrel Reloaded’ that were implemented in 2017”, Senior Supt. Gabriel Lopez told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
“Drug addicts have the tendency to commit crimes, so when they surrendered, and some (were) arrested, then crime incidence went down. That’s how we assessed it,” Lopez said.
No incidence of car theft had been recorded in 2017, compared to the two cases that the province had in 2016, he said.
Stealing of motorcycle also went down to 34 from 44 in 2016, while theft cases dropped from 117 in 2016 to merely 51 in 2017.
Lopez added that robbery incidents also declined to 83 in the previous year, compared to 90 in 2016.
A significant reduction in the number of cases of physical injury, rape, and homicide was also noted last year, but he was unable to provide figures.
Operations against Most Wanted Persons and other petty crimes recorded 1,165 arrests for last year, 482 of which were due to hot pursuit operations.
On the local insurgency, Lopez said two members of the New People’s Army voluntarily surrendered to the police last year, while six were arrested.
The two surrenderers were part of the 20 who yielded to the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Command. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
