THE Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership on Sunday assured a much favorable peace and order environment in the country to fully support the flagship programs of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr. to help attract more investors and further build the economy in the next six years.

According to PNP Officer-in-Charge, Lieutenant General Vicente D. Danao Jr., they are 100 percent behind PBBM’s flagship programs on food security, energy self-reliance, education, public health and sustainable development by laying the peace and order groundwork needed to do the job.

Those programs, he said will see the 225,000-strong police force building the strong foundation anchored on a solid peace and order situation for the newly-minted administration’s programs as the PNP tries to further improve the nearly 50 percent crime reduction from 2016 to 2022 compared to the records in 2010 up to 2016.

Danao assured the full and unqualified united action of the police force to the Commander-in-Chief as PBBM announced initiatives to “build back better” thru a comprehensive all-inclusive plan of economic transformation and comprehensive infrastructure plan upon his assumption to office as the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines.

“For our part as the premier law enforcement and public safety agency, the PNP shall maintain reassuring government presence in the farthest reaches of the hinterlands and islands,” Danao said.

“With this, we will be able to establish a favorable peace and order environment conducive for industries to grow, generate jobs and support government programs,” the PNP-OIC added.

Danao expressed optimism there would be a more favorable peace and order situation in the coming years under the Marcos administration as he noted a marked decline in crime incidents during the past six years of the Duterte presidency from July 2016 to June 2022, compared with the six-year period from year 2010 to 2016 or during the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III.

He explained that the nationwide crime environment data collated from the 17 regional police offices showed the past six years posting a 67.79 percent decline in the index crime incident with non-index crimes registering a 34.47 percent drop.

Theft, physical injury and robbery are the most prevalent index crimes, according to the PNP’s Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System. Index crimes are those classified as violations against persons and property.

Overall, Peace and Order Indicator showed a notable decrease of 49.83 percent in the crime incidence nationwide.

“We are now reaping the fruits of our labor. It wasn’t an easy fight since criminality has been evolving alongside the advancement in technology. Criminals have found strategic and innovative ways to execute their illegal intents. But the PNP organization took this challenge constructively,” Danao said.

The PNP-OIC explained the intensified campaign against lawlessness was really behind the reduced crime incidents over the past six years.

“We have involved the community at large so we can strengthen our intelligence gathering. We also commend the strong support from our partner agencies and other law enforcers for their assistance in some of our police operations,” he added.

The PNP crime reduction measures were evident during the previous Duterte administration as crimes against persons such as murder, homicide, and physical injury together with crimes against properties such as robbery, theft, and carnapping saw a significant decline in the past six years, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said.

Based on PNP data, from more than 6,000 cases in July 2016, murders committed in the country have slimmed down to 983 as of March 2022 with physical injury tallying 1,172 cases, a huge decline compared to its 2016 data of 17,988. Robbery cases also decreased to 1,240 from 9,413 cases in July 2016.

This, the DILG said can be attributed to the police organization’s intensified crime prevention initiatives founded on maximized police visibility dedicating 564,777,443 man-hours on police beat/foot and mobile patrols in performing 24-hour police operations, anti-criminality campaigns and public safety services; deployment of more police officers in conflict-affected areas; and various innovations in crime-fighting mechanisms such as ‘On Calls Responded for Police Assistance Program’ where 424,287 calls were responded to by police officers within 15 minutes.

The crime volume also witnessed a steady decline in the past six years leading to 49,383 in March 2022 compared to 292,589 in July 2016 when President Duterte assumed leadership of the country.