PNP not apologizing over Naga fiasco

The spokesman for the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday owned up to feeding PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde inaccurate information on crime rates, including those for Naga which Vice President Leni Robredo hotly disputed.

But Senior Supt. Benigno Durana said he has already said sorry for the mistake and that to issue a public apology as demanded by some quarters would “do more harm than good.”

The official last week provided a list of major cities with the highest crime volume, by region which Albayalde announced at a press conference.

The classification, however, led Albayalde to erroneously tag several areas as having the highest crime volume, with Naga identified as being No. 5.

“We will consider that but as far as we’re concerned, I have made a public apology already,” Durana said on radio on the demand made by some local officials that he issue a public mea culpa.

Spokesman said error in crime reporting was rectified immediately.

“If (the apology is) done over and over), it will not do good; it will create more harm than good,” he added.

The police are “committed to transparency and the truth,” the PNP spokesman said, adding he immediately apologized and clarified the figures with reporters after he discovered the error.

Based on the latest PNP data, Naga City was sixth and not fifth as earlier reported in the total crime volume during the period January to July 2018 among the major cities outside of Metro Manila.

Naga City ranked second in the volume of so-called index crimes or the crimes against person and property compared to Bicol Region’s six other provinces.

The corrected data showed Robredo’s bailiwick where her husband served as mayor had an average monthly crime rate of 202.80 with total crime volume of 2,879.