(File photo)
MANILA – The Joint Task Force Covid Shield on Thursday welcomed the results of a recent global survey indicating an improved peace and order situation in the country.
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, task force commander, attributed the high score obtained by the Philippines to the hard work and sacrifices of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and the Bureau of Fire Protection on the ground who implement both quarantine rules and the peace and order measures.
“Our dedication and sacrifices to keep every street and community safe both from criminals and coronavirus have been paying off. Let this serves as our inspiration to continue doing better and working harder as part of our commitment to serve and protect the people by making them feel safe walking in every street, even at night, and comfortable in their homes,” Eleazar said in a press statement.
Based on the 2020 survey of Gallup, a US-based analytics and advisory company, eight out of 10 Filipinos surveyed feel secure in their community.
The firm's Global Law and Order report showed that the Philippines got a score of 84, making it among the report's top 50 list. Singapore and Turkmenistan topped the list with a score of 97 while Afghanistan ranked the lowest with 43.
Gallup’s Global Law and Order report is a worldwide gauge of people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement.
Meanwhile, Eleazar also attributed the survey's positive results to the local government units and other government agencies which actively participated in the strict and proper implementation of the quarantine rules on the ground.
The JTF Covid Shield is the enforcement arm of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID). It is composed of PNP, AFP, PCG and BFP.
PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan earlier ordered police commanders to intensify police visibility down to the barangay level both as an anti-crime strategy and implementation of the quarantine rules at the community level.
Cascolan said the global survey results just echoed the personal safety and security being felt by the Filipinos long before the pandemic.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte earlier vowed to improve the peace and order situation in the country by focusing on the illegal drugs trade which the PNP has been saying all along to be one of the major roots of criminal activities.
As a result, the PNP noted a 62 percent reduction of index crimes in the first 42 months of the Duterte administration compared to the last 42 months of the past administration, or from 900,200 cases from January 2013 to June 2016 to only 341,232 cases from July 2016 to December 2019.
In Metro Manila, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) recorded a 61 percent decrease in index crimes during the same 42-month period, or from 143,643 cases of eight focus crimes to only 54,977.
Based on the PNP's latest data, focus crimes in the country dropped by 46 percent during the 225-day community quarantine period (March 17 to October 27, 2020) with 21,602 crimes compared to 39,705 during the same period before the community quarantine (August 5, 2019 to March 16, 2020).
The eight focus crimes -- murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping of motorcycles and carnapping of motor vehicles -- serve as the PNP’s barometer of peace and order situation in the Philippines.
“This is translated to 96 crimes a day during the quarantine period compared to 176 per day before the quarantine period. But we would like to emphasize that the pre-quarantine period crime data was already decreasing as part of the consistent decline since July 2016. And we were able to further reduce the already declining criminal incidents,” Eleazar said. (PNA)
