By Aaron Recuenco
Motorcycle-riding gunmen account for 880 cases of killings across the country for the past seven months, data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed on Monday.
PNP Chief Dir. Gen Oscar Albayalde, speaks during a press conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City, May 15 2018. (Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN)
But PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said the figure is significantly lower compared to the time when they have not intensified the campaign against motorcycle-riding in tandem.
“It has gone down drastically since October 5. However, there are still incidents so what we are going to do is maximum deployment of our personnel,” Albayalde said.
Based on the data from the PNP-Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), the 880 cases include 812 incidents of murder and 68 cases of homicide from October 11 last year to May 21 this year.
The figure virtually translates to four people being killed by motorcycle-riding in tandem every day.
But Albayalde said intensified police operations have also resulted in the death of 12 suspected motorcycle-riding gunmen while 51 others were arrested.
A large number of motorcycle-riding gunmen numbering 1,008, however, remain at large but Albayalde said 358 of them were already identified and are now the subject of follow-up operations.
On the other hand, he said, 255 of the 812 murder cases were solved while 36 cases were also solved of the 68 homicide cases.
As such, Albayalde said they are now mapping out strategies to contain further the operational capability of motorcycle-riding gunmen.