PNP serenades, hands out roses to MRT passengers on Valentine’s Day

Passengers of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) on Tuesday were serenaded and given roses at the Araneta-Cubao station in Quezon City by the personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in line with the celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Dubbed as “Katok ng Pagbabago Mula sa Puso,” police personnel from the Police Community Relations Group (PCRG) and the Quezon City Police District did not waste time to show its “soft side” on this special day.

LOOK: PNP-PCRG personnel will give roses to MRT passengers at Araneta-Cubao station in celebration of Valentine’s Day pic.twitter.com/DJ0CqplBvs

— Marlly Bondoc (@marllybondoc) February 14, 2018

“Itong activity natin this morning ay isa sa mga programa natin na innovation ng ating Philippine National Police para mas malawak at marami ang ating mareach out nating kababayan sa special na araw na ‘to na araw ng mga puso,” PCRG deputy directore Police Senior Superintendent Bartolome Bustamante told reporters in an interview.

“So ito po ay sa mga panamaraan para mapalapit ang ating kapulisan sa ating mamayan na yung soft side ng Philippine National Police ay makita nila,” he added. 

Bustamante, meanwhile, denied that the move was a publicity stunt to improve the image of police since the PNP has recently relaunched its controversial campaign dubbed as “Oplan Tokhang.”

“[Ito ay] para mapakita na seryoso kami sa lahat ng uri ng pamamaraan, para malaman nila we are serious, para magkaron tayo ng relasyon sa ating komunidad. So hindi naman ‘to pabango, talagang gusto natin mapalapit sa ating mga kababayan, magkaron ng tiwala ang ating kababayan sa kapulisan para mas maayos 'yung ating pamayanan,” he said.

“'Yung tokhang is not a bad word alam naman natin over so many months nagkaron ng other meaning, pero the true beauty of that is para po pakiuspaan yung ating mga kababayan para to go away with drugs," he added.

Oplan Tokhang was relaunched on January 29 with the issuance of supplemental guidelines meant to correct its mistakes in the past campaign.

It was in December last year when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the PNP to resume its operations against illegal drugs, with the PDEA as the lead agency in the campaign. — RSJ, GMA News