Crime rate in Cebu City still low — CCPO chief

Police officers are stationed along Osmeña Boulevard in downtown Cebu City during Independence Day on Friday, June 12, 2020. | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The crime rate in Cebu City have remained low after 12 days of transition from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ).

In a media interview, this morning, June 12, 2020, Police Colonel Cydric Earl Tamayo, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) officer-in-charge, said that opposite as what they expected prior to the transition that crimes would possibly rise again, the rate had remained low especially the the eight focus crimes like theft, robbery, murder, rape and others.

“Sa crime statistics nato karon baba pa man wala pa siya gasaka with regards sa eight focus crime nato theft, robbery wala pa sa karon,” said Tamayo.

(Our crime statistics has remained low and it has not risen yet with regards to the eight focus crimes such as theft, robbery. That has not happened yet.)

Tamayo said that when the city was set to shift to GCQ, they were expecting the comeback of crime incident reports including the surge of illegal drug trading.

Last May 2020, CCPO reported that the crime rate has dropped 68.12 percent from March 2 to May 17.

Read: Crime rate in Cebu City drops

However, the continuous strict police patrol around the city and relentless monitoring have contributed for the crime rate to remain low.

Tamayo said that he directed all the station commanders to continue their monitoring and patrols to maintain the low crime rate.

He said that to be able to strictly monitor criminal activities, they had deployed the 178 personnel augmented from the Police Regional Office in Cnetral Visayas (PRO-7) to patrol the streets to make sure that the public had been following the curfew hours from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m./dbs