After red-tagging and profiling complaints, another community pantry organizer complained about police interference and, this time, monitoring. 

Ivanka Custodio, organizer of the Matatag Community Pantry in Diliman, Quezon City, shared in social media a photo of a policeman allegedly monitoring their area. 

Custodio narrated that police were first spotted on April 20. Their pantry was launched on April 17. 

“Kahapon, they were asking for our names. Nabalitaan din namin kahapon na tinatanong ‘yung karinderya sa harap namin kung komunista ba kami? (Yesterday, they were asking our names. We also found out that they’ve asked the eatery in front of our stall if we were communists),” Custodio narrated. 

On April 21, a policeman with a long firearm was again seen roaming the area. Custodio said they decided to talk to the police officer. The officer said that he was part of the Task Force Disiplina of Quezon City. 

Around 1 pm the same day, the police came back and started to take photos. The policeman identified himself as an officer from Quezon City Police District Station 10 and said he was just there to ensure that health protocols are being followed.

Due to wariness, Custodio decided to take photos and posted them on social media. 

According to Custodio, they were inspired by Ana Patricia Non who started the Maginhawa Community Pantry initiative on April 14. It has also inspired similar efforts in other parts of the country. 

But, only a few days into its operation, Non suspended her pantry’s operations due to safety concerns after the Quezon City Police District and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)red-tagged them on social media.

In a message to Rappler, QCPD Public Information Office said they did not receive any reports of policemen monitoring community pantries, particularly the Matatag pantry. 

The police chief of QCPD Station 10 also said that they did not have any orders to monitor the pantries. 

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, meanwhile, clarified that the QC local government has received the report on the alleged police monitoring. 

“I was sent that pic earlier by a netizen and QCPD said that is their motorcycle unit. They have long arms daw because their job is to guard banks and go after riding in tandem. They are not supposed to be anywhere near the community pantry of Matatag,” Belmonte explained. 

In a separate message, Belmonte clarified that the QCPD has already withdrawn the armed policemen, but deployed unarmed personnel to help with enforcing health protocols. 

“[I] spoke to [Brigadier General] Yarra and to ease apprehensions of the people he will assign patrolling footmen in community pantries needing assistance for social distancing and withdraw the armed law enforcers,” Belmonte added. 

On April 20, the Philippine National Police (PNP) denied the allegations of interference and red-tagging of the pantries. 

PNP spokesperson Brigadier General Ronaldo Olay also said PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas had already ordered the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the police regional offices to probe the red-tagging in their respective units. – With reports from Dwight De Leon/Rappler.com