ILOILO CITY — The Police Regional Office 6 reported on Tuesday that crime incidents in Western Visayas dropped by 11.09 percent during the first eight months of this year compared with the same period in 2021.

PRO6 spokesperson, Lt. Col. Arnel Solis, said the decrease in crime can be attributed to their weekly conduct of enhanced managing police operations from city/province level up to the regional level and also the support of their stakeholders.

Data showed that from 7,924 cases from January to August last year, crime incidents went down to 7,045, or a difference of 879 incidents.

The highest decrease was in Iloilo City with 966 cases from 1,444 or a drop of 33.1 percent; Iloilo province recorded 1,559 from 1,871; Guimaras has 202 from the previous 225.

The PRO6 data, however, showed that crime incidents in Negros Occidental increased by 4.34 percent with 1,947 cases from last year's 1,866 incidents.

"It's only a slight increase. The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office has been instructed to identify municipalities and cities with higher crime incidents and look for approaches to address or prevent the occurrence of crimes in these areas," Solis said.

He added that PRO6 director B/Gen. Leo Francisco has also reminded all police units to be relentless in crime prevention and implementation of solution strategies to prevent crimes.