Motor Vehicle Theft in Negros Oriental Philippines: Patterns Across Space, Time, and Targets 1* Dan Jerome Barrera, 2 Rachelle Mae Omaña, 3 Galo Alviola, 4 Roy Grapa, 5 Jason Ojales, 6 Kenneth Antonio, 7 Jason Moninod Motor vehicle theft is one of the most prevalent property crimes in the Philippines. However, the study about its nature in the country is yet to be published. Thus, we explore its patterns across space, time, and targets specifically between January 2011 to June 2014, at Negros Oriental, the Philippines. Based on opportunity perspective, we speculate that hot spots, hot times, and hot products of this crime exist in the province. Indeed, results reveal that this crime tends to cluster across space, time, and targets. Most motor vehicle thefts occurred in the provincial capital - Dumaguete City - while few occurred in some other cities in the province and municipalities and were usually concentrated at dawn during weekends. Further analysis reveals similar spatiotemporal patterns in Dumaguete City. Regarding targets, vehicles commonly stolen are motorcycle underbone models or motorcycles whose parts are highly disposable within areas in the province and nearby islands. These preliminary findings confirm our speculations that motor vehicle thefts are patterned in space, time, and targets. Above all, the findings support the idea that opportunity makes the thief, and that opportunity-reducing measures can be designed to curb this prevalent and costly problem. Keywords: Motor vehicle theft, crime pattern, hot spots, hot times, hot products, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 College of Criminal Justice Education, Negros Oriental State University Brgy. Bajumpandan, Prism, Volume 20 Issue 2, (July- Dec. 2015) Dumaguete City, 6200, Philippines *danjerome.barrera@norsu.edu.ph INTRODUCTION Motor vehicle theft (MVT) is one of the volume crimes in the Philippines. It consistently ranks third next to theft and robbery among all property crimes in the country, accounting for about 10% of this type of crime (National Statistics Ofice, 2014). Statistics shows a 68% increase in motor vehicle theft, from 1,881 in the irst half of 2013 to 3,170 in the same period in 2014 (Dinglasan, 2014; Poe, 2015). With this, it is estimated that at least two cars and 15 motorcycles are stolen every day in the Philippines. This is unfortunate because MVT brings forth adverse psychological effects and inconvenience to the victim (Berkson, 2004 & Harlow, 1989 cited in Walsh & Taylor, 2007) and substantial economic losses (Maxield, 2004). However, to our knowledge, there is no published study of these events in the Philippines. This situation partially resonates that of the Unites States. Walsh and Taylor (2007) posit that among all index crimes in the US, MVT is the most underresearched; and this is more pronounced in non-urban areas (Weisel et al., 2006). Nevertheless, some research exists and shed some light on the nature of this offense in western countries. Previous studies found that ABSTRACT