Adiong says crime still low, ‘one incident can鈥檛 drive rates up’
Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong. Photo from Adiong’s Facebook page.
MANILA, Philippines — The data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) indicating lower crime incidence is still accurate, according to Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, noting that one unfortunate incident cannot drive rates up.
Adiong during a press briefing was asked if he still stands with the PNP’s claims of lower crime rates after Filipino-Chinese businessman Anson Que was kidnapped and found dead recently in Rodriguez, Rizal.
According to Adiong, this incident cannot drive up the crime rate and negate PNP’s success.
“One incident cannot just overrun and overhaul the data gathered by the PNP,” Adiong said on Thursday. “(Because we are relying based on the rate, crime rate as submitted by the PNP and all of the data we presume to be coming from the different PNP headquarters across the country.”
“So I will stand by the rate, crime rate that has gone down as submitted by the PNP as something that is official. One incident cannot overhaul entirely the data, the official data that was collected by our different PNP posts all over the country. And what it says is (that) the crime rate has gone down,” he added.
Proactive pursuit
Last April 2, no less than House of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez thanked the PNP for proactively pursuing its mandate of stopping and preventing crime, urging the public to be more vigilant of fake stories insinuating that a high crime incidence plagues the country.
According to Romualdez, PNP data showed that crime rates have gone down. That includes focus crimes of theft, robbery, rape, murder, homicide, physical injury, and carnapping.
PNP said that crime rates nationwide have dropped by 18.4-percent, from the first quarter of 2025 compared to the last quarter of 2024. Focus crimes meanwhile decreased by 26.7 percent from January 1 to February 14 in 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.
READ: Nationwide crime rate drops by 26% from Jan 1 to Feb 14, says PNP
However, civic leader Teresita Ang-See urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to order a thorough scrutiny of the police force, as there have been three kidnapping incidents just within the last five weeks. Including that of Que’s.
The three kidnapping incidents, Ang-See said, involved a 14-year-old Chinese student in Taguig in February, a Chinese food kiosk owner in Binondo, Manila, and Que.
Law enforcers
“It’s time [for Mr. Marcos] to check who his law enforcers are,” Ang-See said in a phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Aside from Ang-See, several critics of the current administration have questioned the accuracy of the data, fearing that crime prevalence has gone up compared to when former president Rodrigo Duterte was in office.
READ:
PNP believes the group that is behind the abduction and killing of Que may be debt collectors connected to Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
Marcos during his previous State of the Nation Address last July 2024 ordered the banning of Pogos, with all licenses revoked as of December 31, 2024.
Adiong, on the other hand, believes this incident would not discourage foreign investors, as the country still enjoys a strong economy.
“The inflation rate has gone down. It’s 1.8% na right now,” he said. “Our credit rating in the international community is very stable and we have gathered the confidence of our international partners as far as our credit rating is concerned.”
“I don’t see any reason why one incident would try to just simply dispel all of these achievements and progress that we have attained insofar as the issue of international investment is concerned,” he added. “Again, if that is the case, I believe that person deserves justice. So, I personally would like to call on the PNP to do a thorough investigation on this.”
