CRIMES went down during the one-year tenure as Philippine National Police chief of Director General Raul M. Bacalzo who ordered the sustained implementation of all anti-criminality plans nationwide.

“I expect the downtrend in crime incidence to continue as I have instructed all police stations and units nationwide to be always on the alert against both street or petty crimes and organized crimes. I assure that public that we have been going hammer and tongs against organized crime,” said Bacalzo who will leave the PNP tomorrow enjoying a 79 percent public awareness rating and more importantly, a 39 percent public approval rating as shown by the latest Pulse Asia survey.

Officials said Gen. Bacalzo’s 39 percent public approval rating is an indication of his commitment to boost morale and welfare, personnel performance, competence, discipline and professionalism through institutional reforms in the PNP that were recognized by an appreciative public.

Official PNP records showed that kidnapping-for-ransom incidents decreased by 72.73 percent in the first semester of 2011 from 11 incidents in 2010 to three in 2011, in which two of them were solved.  According to the head of the elite Police Anti-Crime and Emergency Response, Senior Supt. Isagani R. Nerez, they recorded a “zero kidnapping” rate in Luzon and Visayas from January 1 to date this year, a first in the PACER’s colorful history.

The PACER, however, is treating the situation in Mindanao differently due to the presence of lawless groups notorious for kidnappings like the Abu Sayyaf, the Pentagon Group and rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas and other copycat gangs.

Car thefts also drastically went down during Bacalzo’s tenure as he saw to it that the matter will be fully addressed by the PNP Highway Patrol Group headed by Chief Supt. Leonardo A. Espina and other concerned police territorial units.