Bolstering President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent claim that the hometown of opposition leader Vice President Leni Robredo is a “hotbed of ‘shabu’ (crystal meth),” the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Naga is one of the country’s major cities beset with crime problems for the first half of the year.

“If the assumption is that crime and drugs are interrelated, we can rightfully make our own conclusion,” PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde said at a press conference on Wednesday.

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Albayalde admitted that the PNP was still tallying the drugs confiscated in major cities.

On Friday, PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Benigno Durana said data collated from January to July 2018 showed that “among the major cities of the country outside Metro Manila, Naga City is ranked No. 6 in the total crime volume.”

16th out of 36 cities

When cities in Metro Manila are included in the ranking, however, Naga—with a 2,879 crime volume in the first six months of 2018—ranks only 16th out of 36 cities.

The top three cities with the highest crime volume are Quezon City with 22,019, Manila with 12,424 and Cebu with 6,324.

Interestingly, Naga comes right after Davao City, the President’s hometown, which ranks 15th with 3,071.

Durana pointed out that for the first half of the year, Naga also posted the highest average monthly crime rate of 202.80.

Crime rate refers to the number of crime victims for every 100,000 of the population.

The PNP spokesperson said the average monthly crime rate “validated” the President’s statement about Naga’s drug problem “because crime rate is a more accurate assessment of a crime situation of a given locality.”

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The rankings include only highly urbanized and independent component cities.

There are 145 cities across the country, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Insult to the city

Robredo said the President’s recent statement that Naga had a big drug problem was a huge insult to the city.

The Naga city council already filed a resolution of indignation to protest against Mr. Duterte’s remarks.

“[A]ccusations like that is an insult against those from Naga. That’s unfair. That is why we are protesting this in the strongest of terms,” Robredo said.

“The city council already gave me their resolution of indignation for (the damage) done to the reputation of Naga. We will not take this sitting down,” she added.

But Malacañang called the resolution “a waste of time and government resources.”

“They should [instead] exercise their power to rid the city of the menace of shabu and other illegal drugs,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a phone interview last week.

Roque reiterated that Mr. Duterte made the claim based on information he got from law enforcement authorities.—WITH A REPORT FROM STEPHANIE FLORIDA AND CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO

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