By Aaron Recuenco
General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered all police commanders to attend to complaints of cyber-bullying amid possible spike of complaints with the series of opening of classes this month.
PNP chief Police General Oscar Albayalde (KEVIN TRISTAN ESPIRITU / MANILA BULLETIN)
He also informed all parents and students that the PNP has a special unit that caters to complaints relating to crime committed through social media and the internet—the Anti-Cybercrime Group or ACG.
“We encourage the parents and the students to go to the nearest police station in their communities to file their complaint relating to cyber-bullying and other internet-related crime if they do not want to go to Camp Crame,” said Albayalde.
“The complaints that they would file would be referred to the ACG,” he added.
Albayalde made the statement amid the two recent controversial cybercrime cases involving students.
The first one was the sharing of nude photos involving six male graduating students of the Philippine Science High School Main Campus in Quezon City. The six students reportedly shared the nude photos of their classmates.
The incident resulted in the school administration denying the six students of attending the graduation ceremony.
Also, a faculty member and some students of University of Sto. Tomas in Manila became controversial for allegedly sharing nude photos of women in their chat groups.
While the ACG was established a few years ago, it has been noted that only a few victims go to the police unit to file their complaint.
In 2017 for instance, only nine cases of cyber-bullying were reported to the ACG and 12 in 2018. Since January this year, only one case has been reported.
Albayalde took note of the importance of immediately attending to complaints of cyber-bullying.
“This is now becoming the common form of bullying among the students because unlike the common cases of bullying, cyberbullying also happens outside the school,” said Albayalde.
While policemen are ready to attend to these complaints, Albayalde still reminded the parents to pay attention to the concerns of their children, and for the children to tell all their problems to the parents.
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