No, it is not useless

Chances are you have heard or been told by “victims” or naysayers that there is no point in reporting a crime to the police because nothing is achieved, or the criminals are never caught, or “the police don’t do anything.” There are also people who discourage you from filing a complaint or ranting on social media regarding bad service or poor-quality products.

Well this column is meant to encourage you to report a crime to your local authorities, the police precinct in the nearest barangay, go to customer service, write an email to the company concerned or, if necessary, go to the government agency concerned or your nearest friendly media.

I make this point because I recently heard and witnessed what happens in situations when word gets out. For instance, about two months ago a foreign lady who had just moved into our barangay found herself victimized by snatchers riding in tandem who made off with her cellphone. Shocked by it all, the lady could only stand at the street corner helplessly.

By sheer coincidence the street security guards in the block were talking about the incident and one of them shared the details with me. In turn, I wrote about the incident as part of my observation that petty street crimes and drugs were making a comeback. I was simply shaking the bushes, so to speak, hoping it would get the attention of the authorities.

Apparently, every time someone reports, writes or posts a crime, there are PNP personnel monitoring and calling out the precinct commander of the area. This is what happened in the case of my neighbor, who was literally tracked down by a junior policeman in order to get the details of the event. It seems that his commander told him in no uncertain terms to find the victim and take action on the matter.

Once the poor fellow found our neighbor, he could not help showing his relief and happiness, which indicated how much pressure the local police precinct was under regarding the phone snatching of a foreigner.

When it comes to consumer complaints, I have observed two groups that consistently act on problems when people report, publicly complain or post on social media. The first is the DTI Consumer Protection Group that is tasked to receive, review and act on consumer or customer complaints.

I have heard and read good reviews about the CPG even among expat communities and Facebook groups. Recently I spent time with them and as small, understaffed and under-funded the agency may be compared to the enormity of complaints, the group has been praised even by foreigners for resolving issues efficiently and fairly.

The other group is none other than the Senate and Congress. Every time a steady stream of complaints begins to flow or get loud especially in mainstream media or social media, you can bet that your representative or legislator is likely to pick up on it and schedule an investigation. But the trick is in convincing them that the problem is serious, widespread and unattended to and will be covered by the media or will go viral or has gone viral.

Both houses of Congress have investigated so many consumer complaints ranging from the price of pork, rice and currently problems hounding airline passengers. It’s interesting to note that on occasion, public complaints don’t seem to get any response so people go to the media. Depending on who writes or talks about it and how annoying and persistent we are, we do get results often.

But when we in media can’t get answers or are ignored by let’s say a government agency or official, persistence and grit eventually result in the issue reaching Congress or the Senate. This is one place businesspeople don’t want to get hauled to for consumer complaints because they will be grilled and squeezed dry with pleasure, until the investigators hear what they want to hear.

But if you believe or agree with the naysayers that it’s pointless to complain or report a crime and opt to go silent, well then no one will hear your side or will be able to help address your grievances. As they say, the noisy wheel gets the oil.

When a victim of mobile phone identity theft shared how scammers methodically took control of their phone, took over the account and then stole so much money from their account, all I had to do was reprint what he shared and his story came out in The Philippine STAR and then the story went viral, all because the victims decided to do something about it. It’s really simple: avoid becoming a victim twice. Do something about it.

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Hosting an early morning talk show certainly fills the tank with knowledge and my recent discoveries are downright disturbing. In one episode, I learned that we currently have a crisis in Philippine education where many grade school students are being passed and sent to the next grade even if they have not attained the passing grade or competency requirements.

It seems that when students fail and are retained, this has an effect on the ranking of the school, affects the promotion and bonus of the teacher who will also have to teach the remedial summer classes for the students he or she failed.

Instead of “Pasang-Awa” we now have “Pasang Quota.”

In another episode, I was told that ongoing testing of motorcycle riders in the Philippines has revealed that a big number of riders failed the basic test for road signs and safety. I was also told that the reason stricter requirements such as driver education for motorcycle riders has not been enforced is due to a very strong lobby of motorcycle distributors and dealers who do not want their quick sales being impeded by such safety regulations.

Learn all that from AGENDA on Cignal TV.

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