SAYING that motorcycle-riding criminals are responsible for at least five out of 20 crime incidents taking place in a particular district, Philippine National Police chief, Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome yesterday ordered a non-stop drive to account for these armed robbers and assassins who stalk and attack their targets before fleeing on board the handy two-wheeled vehicle.

In a report to President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, Gen. Bartolome said that crimes involving motorcycle-riding suspects have been a major concern for the PNP over the years. In 2010, a total of 2,487 cases involved Riding-in-Tandem Criminals or RITC were recorded across the country.

Last year, 2,960 cases again involving RITCs were recorded by the PNP. Most of these incidents took place in Central Luzon, Central Visayas and Metro Manila.

However, Gen. Bartolome said that PNP operations against motorcycle-riding criminals in 2011 yielded 1,047 suspects. Of the number, 920 suspects were arrested and 127 others were killed in gun battles with patrolling policemen.

The PNP estimates that 25 percent more crime cases are solved for every arrest of motorcycle-riding criminals because these criminals are also responsible in other past criminal activity. RITCs are known for using motorcycles as their getaway since these vehicles are not only cheap but also cheap to maintain and could easily snake in and out of heavy traffic.

Gen. Bartolome said they fully believe that more unsolved cases can be solved by the local police in the event they manage to neutralize RITCs.

He cited the case of a notorious motorcycle-riding criminal identified as Julius Gaza, a resident of Catmon, Malabon City, who was arrested on November 11, 2011 by members of the National Capital Region Police Office.

The PNP chief said that confirmed hits or positive matches in the state-of-the-art PNP Integrated Ballistics Information System (IBIS) linked Gaza to 12 other shooting incidents elsewhere in the metropolis.

Other RITCs neutralized by the police over the past years have turned out to be involved in robbery-holdups and gun-for-hire activities, some of them having been the same armed criminals caught in closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras or identified by witnesses thru police rogue galleries.

Gen. Bartolome has ordered all police regional directors and commanders of the different national operating units to personally supervise the massive campaign against motorcycle-riding criminals.

He also recently reiterated his previous instruction for all his commanders to take appropriate actions to address criminal cases involving motorcycle-riding gunmen in different parts of the country.