NCRPO taps 1K tipsters from transport groups

COME Monday, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will have over 1,000 additional pairs of eyes and ears on the ground to provide tips about criminal activities in Metro Manila.

Some 1,000 transport group members will be sworn in as volunteers for the “Oplan Lambat-Simbat” anticrime campaign before Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento at the NCRPO headquarters.

“The rationale behind the coordination is that drivers are mobile and therefore also in a good position to gather any crime-related information,” said NCRPO spokesperson Chief Insp. Kimberly Molitas.

Molitas said the volunteers—drivers of public jeepneys, UV Express taxis and tricycles, among other vehicles—were members of five transport organizations which earlier signed a memorandum of undertaking (MOU) with the police.

These were the Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas, Pasang Masda, Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations, Alliance of Transport Operators Drivers Association of the Philippines, and the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines.

According to the NCRPO, the information from the five groups collectively known as the Philippine National Transport Organization will help authorities “in the arrest of high-value targets … involved in the commission of heinous and sensational cases.” The tips will also be used for “intelligence and counterintelligence.”

The volunteers will be under the supervision of the NCRPO’s Regional Intelligence Division, Regional Operations Plans Division, Regional Police Community Relations Division, and the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division.

“Everyone uses public transportation and commutes. Good cooperation between the transport sector and the police is always welcome,” Molitas said.

But not everyone was excited about the partnership. George San Mateo, president of transport group Piston, considered it unnecessary.

“Even without it, we have been giving the police information,” San Mateo said, adding that Piston UV Express drivers, for example, have consistently been reporting the activities of holdup men and robbers in one of their terminals in Manila.

“But they (the police) are slow to respond,” he noted.

Asked about the possibility of some of the volunteers being involved in crimes themselves, NCRPO chief Director Joel Pagdilao said those who would be taking their oath on Monday first underwent screening.

“There is a criterion. All those who want to be volunteers should not have criminal records,” he told the Inquirer, adding that the members of the five transport groups were also required to present a police clearance.

Obet Martin, national president of Pasang Masda who attended the MOU signing on Tuesday, said the formalized coordination was a “welcome development.”

“We thank the NCRPO director. Anything that we can do to help in peace and order in the NCRPO, we are willing to do,” Martin added.

Molitas said each volunteer would be issued an ID after the oath-taking. For their own safety, they will only gather information on criminal activities but will not be allowed to join police operations.

To prevent them from abusing their status as police volunteers, Molitas said that before the MOU signing, “they were properly briefed. The MOU states their limitations.”