President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed a memorandum circular directing all government agencies and encouraging local government units to support the 2023 National Crime Prevention Program (NCPP).
The President said the directive is in line with the adoption of a “whole-of-government” approach in addressing criminality, and ensuring peace and security in the country.
The 2023 NCPP puts into practice the strategies for ensuring peace and security under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) at the helm of NCPP implementation.
The 2023 NCPP was developed by Napolcom through its Technical Committee on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, an inter-disciplinary body composed of acknowledged experts from government agencies and non-government organizations involved in the criminal justice system.
Napolcom is an agency attached to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) responsible for the administration and control of the Philippine National Police.
On Thursday, a ranking police official said the country’s crime rate dropped by 11.36 percent in the first three months of the year.
In a Laging Handa briefing, Philippine National Police (PNP) PublicInformation Office chief Col. Redrico Maranan said a total of 12,226 crime incidents were recorded from Jan. 1 to May 2, compared to 13,763 crimes in the same period last year.
“We were able to reduce 1,500 plus crimes of the so-called eight focus crimes. That’s why we see, our different anti-criminality strategies, we see that it is effective,” he added.
The eight focus crimes are murder, homicide, physical injury, robbery, theft, vehicle theft, motorcycle theft and rape.
Index crimes are serious crimes such as murder, homicide, physical injury, robbery, rape, theft, and carjacking, while non-index crimes are violations of local ordinances and laws and vehicular accidents.
Maranan said that under PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr.’s leadership, the PNP will deploy policemen in barangays identified by the local police forces as crime-prone areas as part of preemptive efforts against criminality. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
“The focus of our new PNP chief, Gen. Acorda, is to assign police tocrime-prone barangays. We have already identified that and that will be the priority of our deployment… in the crime-prone barangays. And we have also identified police regional offices that will be the ones to lead in their area of responsibility,” he added.
Maranan earlier said the move is a strategic action plan as the national police do not have enough manpower to guard over 100 million Filipinos across the country.
Maranan explained that police visibility has been proven as a crime deterrent over the years.
He emphasized the importance of the cooperation of the barangay officials in maintaining peace and order.
He said that strong coordination between the police and the community lies on the cooperation between the two, adding that it is the police commanders who are given the task to initiate it.
“The PNP cannot deploy policemen in each of the barangay. What we do is to cluster the barangay and then we either put up Police Community Precincts, police assistance desks or even a police outpost. We believe that if this is properly implemented, we would be able to reduce crime, especially in the crime-prone barangays,” he added.
