What Duterte has achieved so far in war vs. crime

Riding on a popular platform of suppressing crime and corruption, Rodrigo Duterte made history this year when he became the first Mindanaoan president.

He promised to go hard on criminals, particularly drug syndicates, in the hope of replicating his success story in Davao City, which he transformed from a safe haven of criminals into a peaceful and progressive area as its mayor for over two decades.

The enormity of challenges facing Duterte's anti-crime war cannot be understated.

Data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) show a fourth of reported crimes (61,475 out of 245,106) in the first five months of 2016 are serious crimes such as robbery, murder and rape.

Only about half or 54.48 percent of reported crimes were solved by the police.

The PNP considers a case "solved" if at least one suspect is identified, taken into custody and charged and also when the victim refuses to press charges against the alleged offender or when the offender dies or absconds.

As for crime fighting resources, Duterte inherited a national police force that badly needs reinforcement.

As of April 2016, the PNP is short of 44,011 policemen to effectively secure the country's population of over 100 million.

The actual number of policemen is 162,737 and the ideal number policemen is 206,748 based on the country's population.

Duterte also has to contend with low salaries for policemen and soldiers which he plans to address by doubling their gross pay.

Lower crime volume

Despite meager resources, the PNP under the new leadership of Director General Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa knows it can deliver.

Three days before President Duterte's first State of the Nation Address, PNP Acting Director for Operations Chief Superintendent Camilo Cascolan expressed optimism that the crime volume will continue to go down as they intensify operations against drug-related criminal activities in the succeeding months.

From 52,950 crime incidents in January 2016, the total crime volume slipped to 46,060 crime incidents in June, the PNP said.

Since July 1, the PNP has recorded a total of 3,213 arrested drug personalities nationwide and killed 239 drug suspects.

Under Project “Tokhang” (Katok-Pakiusap) or house visitations on residences of suspected drug personalities, a total of 120,038 have voluntarily surrendered. Of the number, 112,902 are confessed drug users and 7,107 are drug pushers.

Detention

Going after criminals, however, is also an issue of where to put them as soon as they are arrested.

Prison facilities are congested and drug rehabilitation centers are only concentrated in Manila.

As of May this year, detention facilities under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology have a total population of 110,138, which is way beyond the capacity of 18,987.

Prisons managed by the Bureau of Corrections can accommodate up to 16,010 people but the actual population stands at 41,466.

Duterte has bared plans to build more facilities to rehabilitate drug addicts who surrendered to authorities. —ALG, GMA News