General Ricardo Marquez (R), the Philippines national police chief, at the conference in Manila today. (AFP Photo)
The Philippine national police will have more money next year to modernise the force and fight lawlessness amid a pervasive fear of crime that has dominated the political scene, officials said on Tuesday.
The legislature has approved a 88.1-billion peso ($1.87 billion) budget for the police force next year, 13 percent higher than this year. This includes 3.5 billion pesos for modernisation, a 75 percent increase over this year, said Director General Ricardo Marquez, the national police chief.
This will cover new patrol cars, surveillance equipment and a computerised crime reporting system, the first in the country.
With the new equipment, Marquez said that police hopes to cut the volume of crime faster than the current five percent annual reduction.
Aside from the new equipment, the police will install lamps in dark alleys and build 280 new police stations, he said.
Increased police patrols this year in Metro Manila, the capital city of 12 million people, had halved the incidence of crimes such as murder and robbery and police hope to duplicate this feat nationwide, he said.
Despite police statements that the crime rate is falling, surveys are showing many people fear becoming victims.
Such fears have propelled a city mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, known for his ruthless approach towards criminals, to the top of some surveys of next year's preferred potential presidential candidates.
Human rights monitors say, numerous suspected criminals were summarily killed during Duterte's years as mayor of the southern city of Davao.
However, Duterte remains unmoved by criticism.
Asked today about allegations he had 700 people killed, Duterte laughed and said: "That was too small. It was 1,700."