NCRPO to probe alleged profiling of community pantry organizers

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) will investigate police officers involved in the alleged profiling of community pantry organizers, its commander, Police Major General Vicente Danao Jr., said on Wednesday.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, Danao pointed out that there is no such instruction from the police leadership to conduct profiling on the people behind the community pantry trend.

“Kung meron man po, ang ating opisina ay iimbestigahan po kung meron mang pulis [na involved]. Pero wala pong instruction coming from higher level, o sa aking level, o sa level siguro po ng director na gawin,” he said.

(If ever there was profiling, our office will investigate. But there was no instruction coming from higher level, or my level, and even at the level of police director to do it.)

On Monday, Anna Patricia Non, organizer of the Maginhawa Community Pantry, said they would temporarily halt their operations for the safety of its volunteers amid the alleged red-tagging.

Aside from this, some of the organizers were supposedly being asked for their personal information by government authorities.

PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas on Tuesday denied the alleged police profiling of organizers of community pantries, which sprouted recently amid the hardship brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There is no order from the National Headquarters to conduct any form of profiling of organizers of community pantries,” he said.

“It is beyond the interest of the PNP to delve into purely voluntary personal activities of private citizens."

However, government anti-insurgency task force spokesperson Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. admitted that they are checking the background of the organizers.

Danao said his office is not aware of the operations of NTF-ELCAC involving community pantry organizers. —KBK, GMA News