ILOILO CITY – Total incidents of crime in Western Visayas region from January to April this year went down compared with the first quarter of 2021, according to a report released by the Police Regional Office of Region 6.
The report said that only 623 criminal incidents were recorded in the first quarter this year, which is a 12.74 percent decrease from the same period last year which saw 714 criminal incidents recorded.
Western Visayas (Region 6) is composed of six provinces, namely, Aklan, Antique, Guimaras, Iloilo Province, Negros Occidental and Capiz, and two highly urbanized cities – Bacolod City and Iloilo City.
Five of the six provinces registered fewer crimes in the first quarter in eight focus crimes: murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, carnapping-motor vehicle, and carnapping-motorcycle.
Only the province of Capiz, along with the two highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod, recorded an increase in crime incidents.
In Aklan province, there were 47 criminal incidents as compared to the 60 recorded last year.
There were 41 criminal incidents in Antique province which saw the same number of criminal incidents in the same period last year.
Guimaras province recorded 20 criminal incidents, slightly lower compared to the 23 recorded last year.
In Iloilo province, crimes went down to 134 from 152 last year, and so with Negros Occidental province where crimes went down to 145 from 161 last year.
There was a remarkable jump in the number of crime incidents in Iloilo City which recorded 81. It had only 13 last year.
Capiz likewise recorded more crimes with 84 compared to 70 in the same period last year.
Bacolod City registered 71 criminal incidents in comparison to the 70 recorded last year.