Crime volume in May dipped by 23.5 percent within a two-month span starting last March, said the Bohol Provincial Police Office (BPPO).
Crime incidents plummeted to 527 in May from 689 in March, based on a data released by the Provincial Investigation and Detective Management Branch of the BPPO during the joint meeting of the province’s peace and order and anti-drug abuse councils at the People’s Mansion in Tagbilaran City on Tuesday.
The drop started in April when the BPPO recorded 621 incidents of crime, which is 9.86 percent lower than that of the previous month.
In May, physical injury cases topped the record of crimes committed against persons as police tallied a total of 60 incidents.
Twenty-six of the 60 cases have been considered solved, said Senior Inspector Vincent Paul Dumaguing of the BPPO Operations Branch.
Meanwhile, three of four homicide cases, one of two murder cases and three of six rape cases were solved in the month of May, he added.
For crimes against property, 11 of 58 theft cases, three of 28 robbery cases and one of three cattle rustling cases have been solved.
The sole carnapping incident in the month of May was resolved as well, according to the BPPO’s report.
Based on the same data, traffic-related incidents topped the number of non-index crimes committed in May with 166 cases recorded, while 188 and 206 were recorded in April and March, respectively.
During the same meeting, Dumaguing also pointed out the BPPO’s successes in its campaign against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits who infiltrated Bohol in April.
He also cited the arrest of P/Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza and husband Reenor Lou Dongon who were allegedly in the province to rescue wounded ASG fighters.
Nobleza and Dongon were collared at a security checkpoint in Barangay Bacani, Clarin on April 22 while a firefight between ASG men and government security forces was ongoing in the said village.
Bohol was officially cleared of the militants on May 15 after the deaths of Abu Ubayda and Abu Asis in Pangangan, Calape.(Rey Tutas)