Newly appointed Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Nicolas Torre III has directed all police stations to receive and act on complaints from the public — regardless of jurisdiction.
In an interview with the media, Torre emphasized that police officers must not turn away individuals simply because their concerns fall under a different station’s area of responsibility.
“I don’t want people being passed around,” he said, adding that “when someone goes to a police station, they should leave with their issue addressed — or at the very least, with the assurance that they’re being helped.”
If a complaint cannot be resolved on-site, Torre said the station must personally endorse the complainant to the appropriate office or agency.
“They should not say, ‘That’s not our job, go to this or that agency.’ That’s not acceptable,” he stressed.
Torre warned that any officer who fails to assist a complainant — particularly by redirecting them without help — may face disciplinary action. “If someone reports an incident to your station, and it happened under another station’s jurisdiction, don’t say, ‘That’s Station 14, we’re Station 12.’ If you do that, we’ll send you back to retraining. And if it shows gross negligence, we may even file charges,” he said.
