The National Capital Region Police Office launches today (June 29, 2018) the Team-NCRPO official hotlines: 0915-888-8181 for globe and 0999-901-8181 for smart. These hotlines aim to provide immediate and appropriate police response, strenghten public engagement and information and intelligence fusion, and to further intensify the Internal Cleansing Program of the NCRPO. These are manned by trained and competent personnel and police officers. Photo from NCRPO

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Guillermo Eleazar emphasized this Saturday contrary to a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Friday night that at least 1.8 million Filipino families have fallen victims to common crimes in the last six months.

“The trend on criminality is downward,” Eleazar said, pointing out that while the crime rate is declining, “fluctuations” can still be expected.

The NCRPO chief noted during the first 30 months of the Duterte administration, the crime rate actually dropped to 54 percent as compared to the last 30 months of the Aquino administration.

Eleazar said the police will continue to intensify their efforts in curbing criminality.

“We really have to continue what we have started. We are already intensifying our efforts to prevent crimes and our operations against illegal drugs,” he said.

The SWS survey showed 7.6 percent of Filipino families were victimized by common crimes in the past six months referring to pick-pocketing or robbery of personal property, break-ins, car theft and physical violence.

The survey — conducted on 16 to 19 December, 2018 using face to face interviews among1,440 adults — also noted that the number of crime-victim families was up 1.5 points since the 6.1 percent (1.4 million families) in the third quarter and was the highest since the 7.6 during 2017’s fourth quarter.

On the other hand, at least 54 percent did not feel safe walking the streets at night which was higher than the 3rd quarter number of 46 percent and families who suffered break-ins rose across the country — except in the Visayas — where it was down 0.6 percent from the third quarter’s 2.3 percent.

Meanwhile, as families who experienced carnapping rose in Metro Manila during the fourth quarter last year, zero cases were recorded among vehicle-owning families in the balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

On the illegal drugs issue, at least 39 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: “In this neighborhood there are already very many people addicted to banned drugs” which was down two points from the 41 percent recorded during the second and third quarters last year.

Families fearing the presence of drugs remained highest in Metro Manila at 53 percent, followed by the Visayas (41 percent), Balance Luzon at (39 percent) and Mindanao at (26 percent).