Newly-installed acting Philippine National Police Provl. Director of Negros Oriental Sr. Supt. Edwin Portento on Wednesday reassured the media here that they are will still have access to police reports especially on criminality.
Sr. Supt. Portento gave the assurance during a forum at which members of the Dumaguete media took turns in asking him if a supposed order the PNP Chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, to withhold spot reports from the media, which the PNP Regional Office 7 in Cebu City also adopted.
According to Portento, what cannot be shared with the media is the formal investigation report to be submitted to higher headquarters but the basic information/details of a particular incident may still be shared to the reporters.
The Negros Oriental PNP Provincial Office, at the time headed then by Sr. Supt. Harris Fama, had introduced a practice of sending text blast messages from the different police stations to the media to save the latter from unnecessary trips to the other towns and cities.
The text blast was then adopted by Fama’s predecessor, Sr. Supt. Henry Biñas until he was re-assigned to Iloilo City.
When Sr. Supt. Portento assumed the post vacated by Sr. Supt. Biñas, the text blast continued for days until dela Rosa’s order came out this week, and by then the police reports through text messaging had stopped.
Local media practitioners pointed out that a police report, especially a police blotter entry, is a public document that should be shared to the public in the spirit of transparency and accountability.
Earlier suggestions of sending press releases instead of the immediate spot reports or text blast messages was not welcome by the local media, saying that it defeats the timeliness of the news because of these have to get the approval of superior police officers.
A press release is also “biased” and/or perhaps slanted, some reporters here noted.
But Sr. Supt. Portento agrees that the public has the right to know what is going on in the community.
Also, the different police stations, who he says have their own public information officers, may share the general information that is necessary, Portento added. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
