After more than a week of silence, the Philippine National Police on Friday released official figures showing that crime incidence in the country went up in the first quarter and second quarter of the year, with Metro Manila posting the highest criminality rate.

The PNP said crime incidents went up from 245,347 in 2013 to 289,198 this year within the same period (January to May),  nationwide.

Out of the total figure, Metro Manila posted 59,448, or a 7,564 increase from last year’s 51,884 within the same period.

The PNP said the figures were culled from police blotters and did not include crimes reported in the barangay level.

But PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac reasoned out that despite the increase of crime incidence, there was also an increase in “crime clearance.”

“We admit that crimes increased but directly proportional to that is an increased of crime clearance and solution efficiency,” Sindac said.

Sindac explained that the PNP posted an 8.73 percent in crime solution from 26.77 percent last year to 35.50% in the first six months of 2014, while its crime clearance also increased by 10.69 percent from the 38.56% to 49.25% for the same period respectively.

PNP records also showed that the average monthly crime rate went up from the previous year’s 50.22 percent to 58.07 this year or 7.85 higher for the same period.

However, Sindac explained that the figures emanated from under-reported crime incidents from different police blotters nationwide to deliberately present a low crime rate for still unknown reasons.

He said the under-reporting of crime statistics has resulted in the relief of nine PNP officers and men in accordance to a directive issued by PNP chief Alan Purisima.

 In its report, the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management that presented the statistics said the “under-counting of crime incidents due to policies giving pressure to Chiefs of Police to maintain a low crime volume and high crime solution efficiency.”

The DIDM also blamed practices of some police stations which often do not include in their reports incidents involving women and minors.

The DIDM findings further cited that some police stations do not count the cases directly filed before the courts and also do not consider reports from other law enforcement agencies, even as some police unit commanders and investigators are oftentimes at a loss whether to include or exclude a certain crime incident in their report.

Also based on PNP records, index crime volume (or crimes committed against persons) went up in Metro Manila also went up by 4.101$ or 25,353 for January to May 2014 compared to 21,252 for the same period last year.

The 2014 index posted a dramatic increase in physical injury cases with 8,455 from last year’s 7,597 for same period.