The Palace on Monday said the temporary suspension of the government’s war on drugs became a “window of opportunity” for drug suspects to rob people and steal cars.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella made the statement in reaction to a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing that 6.3 percent of families lost property to street robbery, burglars (break ins), or carnappers within the past six months.

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The latest SWS survey on crime victimization and public safety showed that more families have been victims of crimes in the past six months.

Around 1.4 million families or 6.3 percent had a member who was the victim of a property crime in the last six months, the survey showed. This is up from one million families or 4.5 percent in December.

Abella said this validated earlier reports showing an increase in crime after the Philippine National Police suspended “Oplan Tokhang” and “Project Double Barrel” last January.

Temporary suspension

“The temporary suspension of police antidrug operations proved to be a window of opportunity for illegal drug violators to engage in burglary and car theft,” Abella said in a statement.

But he said the 6.3 percent figure was still 1.3 percent below the 2016 annual average of 7.6 percent.

“The same survey showed a steady number, at 52 percent, of drug addicts in the neighborhood as perceived by respondents; meaning, there was no decrease in the number of drug addicts from last December’s figure, which can likewise be attributed to the temporary halt of police antidrug operations,” he said.

The SWS survey showed that victimization of any family member by any crime was at 6.8 percent or 1.6 million families in September 2016, after President Duterte assumed office and dropped to 4.9 percent or 1.1 million families in December. It rose back to 6.8 percent in the last survey period.

The survey also found that 435,000 families or 1.9 percent lost property in a home break in while 155,000 or 0.7 percent suffered physical violence over the same period.

Street crimes

In car-owning families, 83,000 families or 1 percent said they had their vehicle stolen. Of the street crime victims, 1.2 million families

or 5.3 percent encountered pickpockets.

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Since 1989, the SWS has been asking respondents if any of their household members had been a victim of theft outside the home, a home break-in or an act of violence in the past six months. In 1992, the SWS added motor vehicle theft to the list.

The SWS survey for the first quarter of 2017 also showed that fear of the presence of many drug addicts remain steady at 52 percent.

Fear of burglary is down to 56 percent from 63 percent in December while fear of unsafe streets is also down 50 percent from 54 percent.

According to the polling firm, surveys on crime victimization are “noncommissioned, and are always included on the SWS’ own initiative.”

More realistic

SWS president and chief executive officer Mahar Mahangas said the survey’s approach was more realistic than the official figures from police blotters since a large proportion of crimes were not captured by the police blotter.

Mangahas said many victims did not report crimes to the police for the following reasons: they considered some crimes too minor to be reported to the police; they did not trust the police to recover stolen properties or to capture the criminals; they were afraid of retaliation by criminals; or they were related to the criminals.

The survey was conducted from March 25 to 28 using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults divided into random samples of 600 in balance of Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.

It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. —CHRISTINE O. AVENDANO AND MARIELLE MEDINA AND KATHLEEN DE VILLA, INQUIRER RESEARCH

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