At left is Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, and at right is Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, NCRPO chief.
Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar has scrapped the direct hotline to the National Capitol Region Police Office (NCRPO), just a month after it was launched by his predecessor, Director Camilo Cascolan.
Instead, Eleazar relaunched old but lesser known NCRPO hotline numbers last Friday.
Dubbed 鈥淧ulis na abusado, pusher at mga loko鈥� agad i-send mo sa Team NCRPO,鈥� the new number are 0915-888-8181 and 0999-901-8181.
In an interview, Eleazar said the numbers were already available as early as 2010 but few people knew about them.
In contrast to the national government emergency numbers 8888 and 911, the NCRPO lines will connect callers directly to its Regional Tactical Operations Center, which then relay the concerns to the appropriate police unit.
These numbers are also connected to social messaging apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, Line and WeChat.
The NCRPO will also launch a mobile app this week, containing the information on the new hotlines as well as crime and drug prevention tips.
鈥淭hrough this, the public may accompany their reports with photos and videos, which will further help the police in identifying and consequently arresting criminals,鈥� Eleazar said.
The public may also information on any criminal activity, which the police would then verify to avoid 鈥渂eing abused by the public, and distract police from responding to legitimate concerns.鈥�
Eleazar鈥檚 move to relaunch the hotlines comes a month after Cascolan opened his 鈥淚sumbong mo kay Picoy鈥� direct line and Facebook account. /atm