MANILA – More Filipino families fell victim to common crimes, according a September 2018 Social Weather Stations survey.
Around 1.4 million families (6.1 percent) said they were victimized by common crimes such as picking pockets or robbery, break-ins, carnapping, and physical violence in the past six months – higher than the 1.2 million families (5.3 percent) that reported victimization by common crimes in June this year.
The Philippine National Police took this to mean that the public have become more confident in reporting crimes to the police.
“Overall we take this empirical measure of public perception of experience with crime as an indication of greater feeling of safety from crime and subsequently lesser fear of crime,” PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said in a statement.
“The third quarter rate of crime victimization serves to remind our people to remain vigilant and for us in law enforcement to double our efforts,” he added.
More families – 1.3 million – also said they were victimized by property crimes such as street robbery, burglary and carnapping within the past six months, higher than the 1.2 million families in June, stated the survey results released last Thursday.
Majority were victims of street robbery at 1.1 million families, higher than the 930,000 in June 2018.
More families – 159,000 – also reported physical violence within the past six months, higher than the estimated 50,000 families reported in June, the SWS said.
According to Albayalde, the figures can be attributed to the holiday season when “seasonal” crime types in terms of frequency become more prevalent.
“The number is in fact an improvement from the 6.6 percent crime victimization rate posted in the first quarter from January through March 2018 and the double-digit 11.4 percent from April to June 2016,” he said.
The current numbers remain on “manageable levels” and should not be any cause of concern, said the top PNP official.
FEWER FILIPINO FAMILIES FEAR BREAK-INS
In addition the survey showed that fewer Filipinos (52 percent) fear that robbers might break into their homes. This is lower than the 55 percent recorded in June 2018 and the lowest since the 49 percent in December 2011, the SWS said.
Fear of burglaries remained highest in Metro Manila at 66 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 53 percent, Visayas at 49 percent, and Mindanao at 44 percent.
Fear of walking the streets at night and belief that there are drug addicts in their respective neighborhoods remained unchanged since June 2018 at 46 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
Families that fear unsafe streets are also highest in Metro Manila at 59 percent, followed by Visayas at 46 percent, Balance Luzon at 45 percent, and Mindanao at 42 percent.
The same goes for the belief of drug addicts in the neighborhood with 63 percent in Metro Manila, 42 percent in Visayas, 39 percent in Balance Luzon, and 30 percent in Mindanao.
“In our analysis of the national crime environment, 10-month total crime volume decreased 13.06 percent in January through October 2018 as compared with the total crime volume during the same period in 2017,” said Albayalde.
He assured that the PNP is reinforcing operations against street crimes and other forms of criminal activities prevalent during the holiday season, including non-contact crimes committed through cyberspace and telecommunication platforms.
The third quarter SWS survey was conducted from Sept. 15 to 23 using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide and has a +/- 3 percent margin of error for national percentages. (Reports from ABS-CBN News and Philippine Information Agency/PN)
