DILG queries PNP’s TXT 2920

The Department of the Interior and Local Government unit, which supervises the Philippine National Police, has pledged to take necessary measures amid reports that anomalies have hounded the PNP's emergency reporting system.

Under PNP 2920, individuals can text in complaints against erring PNP personnel.

PNP offices are mandated to create or activate their version of TXT 2920, "Isumbong mo kay Tsip," and "Anti-Kotong Text," to serve as a watching or check and balance mechanism against its personnel and act with dispatch on reports reaching their office.

During the sponsorship debate on the DILG's P262.0 billion budget for 2024, 1-Rider Partylist Rep. Bonifacio Bosita raised the question of whether PNP's 2920 is still active since he, himself, witnessed how the PNP covered up its personnel against complaints.

Quezon City Rep. Luisa Cuaresma, the DILG's budget sponsor, said the system is under the monitoring of the DILG, "particularly the PNP."

According to Bosita, a retired police commission officer before his stint in Congress, he witnessed how the PNP maneuvered the process to make it appear that the complaint was not legitimate.

Relay system

"When something happens at a police station, it will reach the PNP headquarters and be forwarded, communicated to the regional office of the PNP and taken down to the provincial police of the PNP and taken down to the police station concerned where the police being complained about is assigned," Bosita said.

"Because of this, Madam Sponsor and Mr. Speaker, the chief of police is trying to make it appear that the report received by the national headquarters is just a lie," he added.