Crime rate in Cagayan increases due to violations of special laws

Police Colonel Ariel M. Quilang, provincial director (file photo)

TUGUEGARAOCITY, Cagayan, June 1 (PIA) - - The Philippine National Police (PNP) this province has recorded an increase of the crime rate in the first quarter of the year due to the enforcement of special laws amid Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Police Colonel Ariel M. Quilang, provincial director, during the virtual Peace and Order Council meeting reported that there were 825 crimes recorded from January to March of 2020, an increase by 42.73 percent as compared to the 578 cases in the 4th quarter of last year.

In the data he presented, the index crimes have decreased from 106 to 71 cases only in the same period which he said is attributed to the implementation of the lockdown in the midst of March, however, the non-index crimes have shoot up from 335 to 651.

He said the difference on the non-index crimes was due to the strict enforcement of the special laws related to the COVID-19 like the Republic Act 11332 or the "Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases" and the Republic Act 11469 or the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act”.

“There were several violators of the special laws during the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in our region, especially the quarantine protocol and the social distancing,” Quilang said.

With this, the crime solution efficiency of the provincial police went down to 72.84 percent as compared to 77.85 percent in the same period last year. Its crime solution efficiency also scaled down from 97.75 percent last quarter of last year to 96.84 in the first quarter of this year.

On the campaign against illegal logging, the Cagayan police scored as they have confiscated over 72,000 board feet of illegaly-sawn lumbers worth more P1 million pesos.

“We conducted 69 operations against illegal logging which resulted to the arrest of 104 individuals. We also filed 67 anti-illegal logging cases,” Quilang said.

There were also a total of 584 unregistered chainsaws confiscated and surrendered during the period as part of their anti-illegal logging campaign. (MDCT/OTB/PIA 2-Cagayan)

Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)