MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday aired his frustration over the latest crime rate in the Philippines, saying it makes him feel useless.

Duterte, who won on a platform of ridding the country of crime and illegal drugs, called on local chief executives and barangay officials to help him fight criminality saying he could not do the task by himself. 

This as he lamented the supposed “nonchalant” attitude of local government units in fighting crime.

“There is always the illegal logging. There is always the illegal drugs, the high rate of crime in your municipality. Ano bang ginagawa ninyo? (What are you doing?),” Duterte said in a speech during the oath-taking of 1,904 newly-elected Zamboanga Peninsula barangay captains in Zamboanga del Sur. 

“I do not mean to offend you. But the yoke of burden does not fall on me exclusively. Hindi ko kaya itong republika na ito na patakbuhin kung wala kayo (I cannot run this republic alone).”

Citing the recent Social Weather Stations survey which revealed that around 1.5 million families fell victim to common crimes during the first quarter of 2018, Duterte said “there seems to be a semblance of a republic and a nation but inside, it’s topsy-turvy, it’s crime-ridden.”

“Pag ganito, wala ako'y silbi, I’ll ask you to join me, mag-resign na lang ta. Hindi ito amin, hindi sa gobyerno. Because you know, people are really very cynic, pagka galing sa gobyerno, they take it with a grain of salt or become cynic. Ayaw maniwala,” he said.

(If this is the case, then I’m useless. I’ll ask you to join me, let’s resign. This survey did not come from the government. Because you know, people are very cynical if a survey comes from the government, they take it with a grain of salt or become cynical. They don’t want to believe.)

The President, a long-time mayor of Davao City, said he has tasked Department of the Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge Eduardo Año to do an audit of local government officials underperforming in the fight against crime.

The SWS survey conducted last March 23 to 27 showed that 6.6 percent of Filipino families reported victimization by crimes such as robbery, break-ins, "carnapping" or car theft, and physical violence within the past six months.

This is a point lower than the 7.6 percent or 1.7 million families reported in December 2017.

1.5 million Filipino families fell victim to common crimes: SWS

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