University of the East

Graduate School
Manila Campus

RESEARCH PROPOSAL:

The relationship of unemployment and crime

rate in Calamba City, Laguna during COVID-19
pandemic

April T. Espiritu
GRR 7501 – Statistical Methods Applied to Research
1ST Semester – Year 2020-2021
December 5, 2020

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Graduate School
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I. Title
The relationship of unemployment and crime rate in Calamba City, Laguna during COVID-19 pandemic

II. Introduction/Background of the study

Calamba City, is a 1st class city in the province of Laguna, is well known to be the hometown of our national
hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Aside from the said known landmark of the city, it is known for being included in the
Philippines’ Top 10 richest city for year 2017 to 2019 based on the annual financial assessment conducted by
the Commission on Audit (GMA Network News). The City is also identified as richest among the region of
CALARBAZON (which is composed of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas, and Quezon) mainly because of its
numerous factories for its land masses which offers job opportunities to its residents, however, there are still
urban places which are not developed for industrial purposes and remained to be residential. On the contrary,
these promising opportunities also exposed the city for threats in terms of increasing in crime rates. During
COVID-19 pandemic, there are 4,824 confirmed cases in the city with 4,624 recoveries, 167 active cases, and 33
deaths (Official Website of the City of Calamba).

This study seeks to establish in identifying the interrelationship of the law misconducts recorded and the
employment rate in the city in display of such behavior during pandemic. As secondary resolve in isolating the
issues of the area, the city government can address and propose notions to better support the identified places
to lessen the crimes and focus on the said areas for more job openings. This similar situation is also comparable
outside to the city borders.

III. Problem of the Study

Does unemployment rate have a relationship with the crimes recorded in City of Calamba during the COVID-19
pandemic?

IV. Hypothesis
Unemployment rate has no significant relationship with crime rate in Calamba City, Laguna during pandemic.

V. Review of Literature/Theoretical Framework

To have a brief introduction, World Health Organization (WHO) published an article in considerations for
implementing and adjusting public health and social measures in the context of Covid-19. As interim guidance
in Covid-19, the following key points are eliminated; (1) Public health and social measures (PHSM) have proven
critical to limiting transmission of Covid-19; (2) The decision to introduce, adapt, or lift PHSM should be based
primarily on a situational assessment of the intensity of transmission and the capacity of the health system to
respond, but must also be considered in light of the effects these measures may have on the general welfare of
society and individuals; (3) Indicators and suggested thresholds are provided to gauge both the intensity of
transmission and the capacity of the health system to respond; taken together, there provide a basis for guiding

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the adjustment of PHSM. Measure are indicative and need to be tailored to local contexts; (4) PHSM must be
continuously adjusted to the intensity of transmission and capacity of the health system in a country and sub-
national levels; and (5) When PHSM are adjusted, communities should be fully consulted and engaged changes
are made. This article is published on April 16, 2020 in order to cope up with the regulations need in line with
the pandemic. According to the WHO website, there are over 61 million Covid-19 cases all over the world. There
are other independent individuals who are presenting different computations of their estimated numbers of
infected cases. However, it is still expected to increase the positive cases so long as the vaccine are not
promulgated yet (World Health Organization – Official Website).

Based on the daily broadsheet issued by Manila Times, one of the ranking police official, said that in the next law
and order survey of US-based analytics and advisory firm, it is expected that the ranking of the country’s index
crimes will have significant drop due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. In addition, Lt. Gen.
Guillermo Fleazar, Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for administration, supported that it is due to
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte assumption of the office. He also added that it is because of the dedication and
hard work of all policemen, soldiers, firemen, and Coast Guard (Manila Times – October 30, 2020).

According to the latest data from the PNP, there is a 46-percent drop all over the country ever since the
community lockdown was implemented on March 17, 2020. The recorded crimes from March 17, 2020 to
October 28, 2020 is 21,729 which is relatively lower than 39,920 crimes during the same period the
commencement of the community quarantine from August 4, 2019 to March 16, 2020.

Before the implemented lockdown, usually there is an average of 177 cases per day but there are only 96 cases
after such lockdown. The top eight crimes recorded are murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft,
and motorcycle theft. Despite the result of the top crimes, it is believed that 8 out of 10 Filipinos fell secure in
their community which made the Philippines in the top 50 with a score of 84 in the list of safest country. In
addition to the positive feedback of the conducted survey, the Department of the Interior and Local Government
(DILG) has also supported the PNP’s result and urged the citizen to still practice basic protocols for COVID-19.

Neighboring countries also recorded lower crimes rates with Indonesia, the police recorded felonies of 3,734
nationwide at the start of April 2020 with 4,197 crimes weeks before April. Malaysia has also plummeted their
crime rate by 70 percent in result of the implementation by the Movement Control order (MCO) in the country,
also known as partial lockdown. It is also stated that the 30 percent of the crimes recorded are mainly break-ins
and theft cases said by the Inspector-General of Police, Abdul Hamid Bador. As included in the conclusion
conducted by the MCO, it is expected that the crime rates will expect to increase after the virus restrictions are
starting to relax in certain areas of their country. With that being said, the Covid-19 pandemic also paves way
for criminals to improve in looking ways to generate profits such as hacking attempts to attack against online
bank accounts and health workers. There are also recorded factories being raided for recycling and re-selling

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used face masks as unused ones in the market. Certain procedures such as ironing, cleaning, and folding the face
masks to be presentable again. Aside from this, there are also individuals who are taking advantage in selling
the face masks at overpriced amounts and fake alcohol and sanitizers. Similar modus are also recorded in the
country of Vietnam with overpriced amounts of medical equipment and surgical gloves (DILG – Office Website).

Aside from taking advantage of the supply and demand, xenophobia has also been growing in most parts of the
world since the origin of the pandemic started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and this is not also the first
time that the country has made the world face such pandemic or epidemic.

Since the world has been shifted to a work-from-home set up which made the members of the family stayed in
their houses as new normal, the people started to develop depression and emotional instability which resulted
to domestic abuse either be it child abuse, spouse abuse, sexual abuse, and others in Indonesia and Malaysia. To
add, fraud has also been showing an incredible increase in terms of telephone fraud and phishing scams with
criminals altering their modus to suit best with the current crisis. With digital issues, there has been threats in
cybercrimes such as malware and ransomware which forced the Company to face problems in their security.
Also, there are also forging certificates of negative Covid-19 results which are being taken advantage of many
(The Asean Post – June 12, 2020).

Meanwhile, the changes in the crime rates are highly affected by the pandemic, there are also significant changes
in the employment rate recorded in the Philippines. According to the report provided by the Philippine National
Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a virtual briefing the country has recorded unemployment rate in July 2020 at
10 percent. As to compare in the similar period in 2019, this is higher than the unemployment rate recorded last
year. In contrary, the 10 percent increase in the unemployment rate is lower than what was recorded in April
2020 at 17.7 percent. In number, there has been a 4.6 million of Filipinos who lost their job due to Covid-19.
Beforehand, the country already recorded a 2.2 million unemployed employees in the same period last year but
it increased a 2.7 million in number.

According to the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), after the slight ease of community lockdown in some
part of the country, particularly in National Capital Region and Calabarzon, the PSA recorded in July 2020 that
there are increasing employment rate in the country since the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the
management of emerging infectious diseases released new regulations that some of the Company can operate
on-site. Based on the resolution no. 38 series of 2020 dated May 22, 2020, states that the IATF approves the
following amendments, revisions, and/or clarifications of the implementation of the rules and guidelines in the
course of the community quarantine. There are limited ratio of the workforce allowed in the on-site operational
capacity of the Company with the exception of full capacity of the public or private hospitals, health and
emergency frontline services, industries involved in agriculture, forestry, and fishery, and delivery and couriers
transporting food, medicine, or other essential goods. Other than enumerated are required to operate at less

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than capacity depending on the issued community quarantine in their respective areas (DOLE Labor Advisory
No. 17-A: Establishment Report Form).

With all that mentioned rules and regulations issued by governing body of the sovereign, there are Companies
who are starting to perform retrenchment to cut-off cost since there are Companies which are not operating at
its maximum capacity. As early as June 2020, Department of Employment and Labor has starting to receive
reports from private companies in application of the list of its retrenched employees in accordance with Labor
Advisory No, 17-A which states the guidelines on employment preservation upon the instance of resumption of
Company’s operations either be it under flexible work arrangement/alternative work scheme, temporary
closure, retrenchment/reduction of workforce, and permanent closure. The advisory is final and executory on
June 16, 2020. One of the Companies who initiated the submission of the report is Okada Hotel which intended
to retrench its 1,000 employees (Department of Labor and Employment - Official Website).

VI. Conceptual Framework/ Research Paradigm

The aim of this study is to determine if there is relative effect in the change of crime rates as to how people
behave in response to changes in the unemployment rate. There are several factors affecting the volume of crime
rate and this is also same with the unemployment rate, however, the study will observe on how does these
mentioned issues are affected during pandemic. It is expected for human to do utmost means in order to live or
survive at the very least. In line with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the individual must fulfill the person’s basic
needs which are provision of food, water, warmth, and security. Several studies have already been established
that when one’s basic needs are not met, the individual tends to misbehave and ignore basic ethics, thus,
increasing crime rates.

Being employed, as one of the sources of person’s income, will make an individual be able to support its basic
needs. However, with the present Covid-19 situation, small businesses are already under the financial burden
because of the economic effect of the pandemic and so does few of the large businesses. The reports of the crime
and unemployment rates will be the main source of formulating the research’s conclusion.

VII. Research Method/Statistical Tool

Introduction
As indicated in the conduct of this study, this section will provide an outline of the procedures to be performed
throughout in achieving the goal of the research. The following paragraph will discuss the research strategy, the
research method, and the methods of the data collection. This portion will also discuss the research limitations
of the study.

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Research Strategy
The research strategy will mostly be compiling and analyzing of several reports provided by the statistics office
of the city government and its other offices. The reports will be demanded through formal note and the data will
be used in limitation of the purpose indicated in the requested letter. It is also expected that there are existing
research project proposed by separate individuals or the government itself since they are required to provide
such reports primarily for decision making purposes and such will be included in the formulation of the
conclusion of the research study.

Research Method
In order to satisfy the objectives of the research, a quantitative research is held to standardize the data collection.
The study requires a relatively large number of samples, thus, one of the factors as considered in using the
quantitative method of research since its outcome can be quantifiable and measurable in its nature. Since the
respondents must be limited to a qualified number of samples and scope of the research, the study depicts the
nature of a quantitative research (Collis & Hussey, 2003).

To note, the study will require a discovery of patterns, averages, forecasting and/or predictions, and simplify
results to wider population. In terms of the kind of quantitative research, this study will fall as an experimental
research since the study aims to identify if there is a cause-effect relationship between the identified variables.
Thus, this is also with the same outcome with correlational research wherein there is an investigation with the
relationship between the variables identified in the study.

Data Collection method

The main sources of the data will be garnered through the government offices of the identified barangays, in
Calamba City, Laguna through reports of its political subdivisions and interviews with the head officials. The
researcher will prepare respective letters to all the addressees to formalize and document the request of the
data in their offices. The data to be requested in the government offices of Calamba City, Laguna are the number
of population per barangay, rate of employed and unemployed, number of crime cases per barangay, number of
confirmed Covid-19 cases, and number of Companies who filed retrenchment due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Research Limitations
Here are the following limitations with regard to the conduct of the study:
 Availability of the latest data – Implementation of skeletal work to contact the person in charge in
requesting the data.
 Time available to investigate a research problem – Due to pandemic, time available in gathering enough
time will prolong the data collection.

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Graduate School
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VIII. Research Procedure

1. Data collection from the city government’s statistics office – crime and unemployment rate. This will
commence in sending an authorized letter with respective signatories for approval.
2. Preparation of the summary of the gathered reports from the city government.
3. Perform the Pearson Product-Moment-Correlation Coefficient in determining the strength of a linear
association of the 2 identified variables.
4. Analyze the result of the formulated data.
5. Compare the result to the data before the pandemic.
6. Identify if there is a significant relationship of the changes in unemployment rate to the crimes rates.
7. Create your conclusions based on your findings.

References:
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/711957/coa-makati-is-philippines-richest-city-cebu-
the-richest-province/story/
https://www.calambacity.gov.ph/
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1120203
https://www.dilg.gov.ph/news/DILG-Crime-down-by-4666-amid-COVID-19-pandemic-urges-leftists-and-
critics-to-stop-spreading-fake-news/NC-2020-1318
https://theaseanpost.com/article/less-crime-pandemic
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
https://www.dole.gov.ph/php_assets/uploads/2020/06/Labor-Advisory-No.-17-A-Establishment-Report.pdf
School of Planning: Types of Research Approaches – University of Waterloo

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