Manila: Index crimes such as homicide, rape and car theft went up during the first six months of 2015, figures from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed.

According to the PNP, physical injury recorded the highest increase among index crimes at 50.70 per cent or 104,638 incidents followed by theft with 61,064 incidents (29.59 per cent); robbery with 18,846 incidents (9.13 per cent); car theft with 6,491 incidents (3.15 per cent); rape with 5,415 incidents (2.62 per cent); murder with 4,845 incidents (2.35 per cent); homicide with 4,371 incidents (2.12 per cent); and cattle-rustling with 718 incidents (0.35 per cent).

But while there is seemingly an increase in the recorded crimes committed during the first half of the year, the PNP clarified there is actually a decrease in criminal incidences if viewed as the whole.

“In fact is, our own crime statistics showed a decrease in both index and non-index crime categories during the first six month of 2015,” PNP Spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor, said.

He said comparative crime statistics culled by the Research and Analysis Division of the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management recorded a Total Crime Volume of 509,924 in January to June of 2015 as against the Total Crime Volume of 602,449 posted during the same six-month period in 2014.

“The Total Crime Volume recorded for both periods translate to a 15.36 per cent decrease,” Mayor explained.

He said the summation of all crime incidents where collated from three main sources: police blotter, village blotter and reports from other law enforcement agencies.

Citing the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management’s Crime Situation Report covering the period January to June 2015, Mayor said for the period January — June, there were 509,924 crime incidents collated from PNP, village and other law enforcement agency blotters nationwide. Of this figure, Metro Manila registered the highest crime incidents with 116,347. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in southern Philippines registered the least with 2,096 crime incidents.

The 206,386 Index Crime incidents recorded comprised 40.47 per cent of the Total Crime Volume.

Mayor explained that generally total crime incidents sourced from PNP blotters, village police and other law enforcement agencies showed favourable decreases. Both index and non-index crimes decreased, due to a drop in number of Crimes Against Person and Crimes Against Property cases by 12.31 per cent and 27.53 per cent respectively.

Experts said that crimes are expected to increase in the coming weeks in the run up to the May 2016 general elections.

It is common knowledge that criminal groups, some of which are allied with local politicians, step up their activities during this period to fatten their resources ahead of the polls.