By Bobby Q. Labalan
LEGAZPI CITY, Sept. 11 (PNA) — Catanduanes was the best and Camarines Sur was the worst among the six provinces in the Bicol Region in terms of peace and order situation, if crime statistics for the first seven months of the year will be the basis.
The Pacific island-province posted the lowest crime volume in the first seven months of 2015 while the biggest Bicol province registered the highest.
Catanduanes only had 1,885 total crime volume composed of 347 index crimes and 1,538 non-index crimes while Camarines Sur had 10,294 total crime volume – 3,730 index and 6,564 non-index crimes, as shown by the data released to the Philippines News Agency by the Philippine National Police Regional Office.
Camarines Sur topped all types of serious crimes, except for murder, robbery and cattle rustling.
It had the highest number of rape incidents with 158 and had 55 murder incidents, 101 homicides and 2,036 physical injuries.
The province also had 198 robberies, 1,112 thefts, 50 carnappings, and 11 cattle rustlings.
It is even worse if crime statistics of Naga City will be added as the city had 35 rape incidents, 12 murders and 17 homicides, 248 robberies, 1,046 thefts, 23 carnappings and one cattle rustling.
As a chartered city, the Naga City Police Office is independent from Camarines Sur Provincial Police Office, hence, it has separate statistics.
Catanduanes only had 6 each of murder and homicide cases, 68 physical injuries and 33 rape incident as well as 69 robberies, 163 thefts and 2 carnappings.
Albay, which had the second highest crime volume in the region, topped robbery incidents with 220.
It also had 32 murders, 67 homicides, 1,286 physical injuries, 116 rape cases, 820 thefts, 21 carnapping and 7 cattle rustlings, and had 5,331 non-index crimes.
Meanwhile, Masbate, which is third in crime incidence, is the traditional murder capital of the region due to its chaotic political situation, thus, its 97 murder incidents during the seven-month period was no surprise, which is considerably lower compared to the 120 cases for the same period last year, the PNP data showed.
It also had the most number of cattle rustling cases at 13 but which could be considered minimal, considering the huge number of large cattle ranches in the island province.Masbate is touted as the Rodeo Capital of the Country.
It had 29 homicides, 613 physical injuries, 76 rapes, 96 robberies, 333 thefts and 41 cattle rustling.
Camarines Norte logged the fourth highest crime volume in the region with 1,147 index crimes and 2,635 non-index crimes.
It topped the list for violations of special laws listed under index crimes. Curiously, the smallest Bicol province ranked second in carnapping cases with 48, and had 21 murders, 22 homicides, 585 physical injuries, and 60 rapes, the third highest in the region.
It also had 125 robberies, 227 thefts, 48 carnappings and 9 cattle rustling.
Meanwhile, Sorsogon had the second lowest crime volume in the region but it was also the only province which registered an increase in total crime volume as most of its index crime figures for the period increased substantially.Murder was up from 50 to 56, homicide increased from 25 to 32, physical injury hiked from 293 to 476, theft from 169 to 196, carnapping from 5 to 14 and rape from 44 to 78 — pushing its index crimes from 646 to 904 and total crime volume to 2,296 from 1995 a year ago, the only province which registered an increase.
Over-all, Bicol’s total crime volume for the first seven months decreased by 22.2 percent compared to last year’s, from 46,572 down to 36,234, the PNP records showed.
The PNP-Bicol office also posted an impressive increase in crime solution efficiency of 41.01 percent compared to last year’s 25.54 percent or an increase of 15.47-percentage points.
Its crime clearance efficiency likewise increased by 14.87-percentage points from 47.28 percent to 62.15 percent.
Senior Supt. Marlon Tejada, chief of the Bicol Regional Police Office’s Investigation Division, said a crime is considered cleared when a case has already been filed but the suspect is still at-large while a case in classified as solved when a case is filed and the suspect is in custody of the authorities. (PNA)