Crime rate in Region 8
decreased by 8 percent
By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
September 9, 2006
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte
– The crime rate in Region 8 decreased by about 8% in the past eight
months, from January to August 2006 as compared to the same period of
last year.
This was revealed by
Col. Cleve Taboso, chief of the operations and planning division of
the PNP Regional Command 8, during the Harampang Ha PIA media
interaction held Thursday morning.
Col. Taboso said that
the crime occurrence in Region 8 from January 2006 to August 31, 2006
totaled to 159 lower than the 2,098 crimes committed from January to
August 2005. He said that what is worth noting, is the increase in
crime solution efficiency.
He revealed that the
province with lowest crime rate is
Southern Leyte while the province with the highest crime rate is Biliran.
Among the Region’s cities, the city of
Maasin has the lowest
crime rate while Tacloban City has the highest crime rate considering
the population of the city and the fact that it is the center of trade
and activities in the Region. It is in Tacloban where people from
different parts of the Region converge, he said, and so it will follow
that the crime rate will be also be higher.
Further, Col Taboso
reported to the media that with regards to the illegal drugs problem
in the Region, the Task Force has conducted 57 operations and 71
prosecutions. He bared that the biggest drug operations they have
conducted so far is the one in Baybay, Leyte where 3 kilograms of
marijuana was found in the possession of a woman pusher.
He said that the
operatives has no knowledge of big time drug dealers in the Region.
What they noted is the shift of preference of the users from shabu to
marijuana. Accordingly, there is also a shift as to the source of the
illegal drug. Whereas before the source is from Manila, the operatives
now noted that the source is usually in
Central Visayas.
He said that the
reason for the change of preference of the users is the very
prohibitive price of shabu which he said is about P5,000.00 per gram.
He advised the public
to be more vigilant and to coordinate with the Philippine National
Police for any unusual happenings in their respective places. He said
that the Philippine National Police is not an enemy of the people but
the defender of the people from anyone who wants to sow havoc and
disorder in the society.
