DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 1 Aug)—One of the reasons behind the frequent change of leadership in the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) and the relief of the 19 station commanders last month was the manipulation of crime statistics to create a misleading impression of low crime rates in the city, according to Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, Police Regional Office – Davao Region (PRO-11) director.
Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III shows reporters Wednesday evening (31 July 2024) a blotter book from the Calinan Police Station which he said has “incorrect” entries. MindaNews photo by ANTONIO L. COLINA IV
As proof, Torre showed reporters who visited his office at Camp Quintin Merecido here on Wednesday evening two “blue blotter” books that were retrieved from Police Station 10 or Calinan Police Station during a routine “blotter validation” that was conducted after he assumed office as the regional police chief.
The blue books with hard bound covers contained handwritten entries of reported daily crimes since June 2, 2023, the date of its issue.
Torre said that multiple entries in the blue books were either inaccurately classified as crimes or were marked as “for record only,” indicating that they were entered in the book solely for documentation and would not be reported as actual crimes.
“Yan ang literal na half-truth (That’s literally half-truth),” he said.
Torre added that the “blotter validation,” a regular mechanism employed by the Philippine National Police to verify reported cases, was conducted by subordinates that he brought to Davao with him from his previous deployment in Metro Manila to prevent any potential cover-up.
“Kasi yan sila nagtatakipan ang mga yan eh. Masisisi nyo ba ako kung mag isip ako na hindi [nila] sasabihin ang totoo? (Because they’re covering up something. Can you blame me for thinking that they might not tell the truth?),” he said.
Torre said he does not intend to destroy the community where he works but noted that the numbers being reported were “incorrect.”
Asked if the previous low crime statistics issued by the DCPO were not factual, the police official said, “hindi talaga (absolutely not),” as he flipped through the pages of the book, reading aloud some of its handwritten entries.
He said that one incident dated March 4, 2024 was reported as a “lost item” when it should have been “theft.”
“You will not report this. You will not put it in the records of crime statistics because it is a ‘lost item.’ But when you read, ‘believed to be stolen inside Beer Plaza near Jollibee Calinan… despite diligent efforts to locate and could no longer be found.’ But it is clear, ‘believed to be stolen,’ but that cannot be recorded. His station is still peaceful,” Torre said.
In another entry dated March 2, 2024, an owner of a motor vehicle reported to Calinan Police Station that he found his vehicle at the junkshop already disassembled or in a bad state.
Torre said the incident was referred to Talomo Police Station, instead of being reported as theft of motor vehicle in Calinan.
“Wala na ulit sa Calinan kasi nilagay mo sa Talomo, so for record ulit. Peaceful na naman ang Talomo, pero isang sasakyan chinopchop dun sa lugar nya (It’s no longer in Calinan because you put it in Talomo, so it’s for ‘record’ again. Talomo is peaceful again, but there was a car in that place that was disassembled so its parts could be sold),” he said.
Torre said that the manipulation of the records would affect law enforcement because the police could not take the right actions to deter crimes in the area, including deployment of additional forces or intelligence operatives to capture the perpetrators since these crimes are not properly recorded.
“Ang bottom line, hindi tama ang numero na pinagrereport ng ating mga station commanders na pinagpapalitan ko, and because of that hindi magiging tama ang programa na i-impelement natin (The bottom line, the numbers reported by our station commanders that I replaced were not correct, and because of that, the program that we will implement will not be correct),” he said.
He said this was one of the reasons why he ordered a mass relief of commanders of the 19 police stations last July 8. On the same day, the DCPO changed leadership thrice.
In a statement last July 9, Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte said that the mass relief of police officials “undermines the hard work not only of these police officials but also of every police personnel who is truthfully fulfilling their mandate, that instead of being recognized, are being relieved and questioned.”
He said this recent move will not help sustain the city’s peace and security situation.
Torre assured that the police service in the city would step up under this watch as he wanted them to give the correct service to the people.
“Ang palaging sinasabi ko sa kanila, ang sistema ko ngayon kung hindi ninyo kayang solbin ang problema at nakarating sa akin, sosolbin ko yan, at kung ma solve ko yan tatanggalin ko kayo kasi wala kayong pakinabang (What I always tell them, my system now is if you can’t solve the problem and this gets to me, I will solve it, and if I can solve it, I will fire you because you are useless),” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
