MANILA, Philippines You can now tip off law enforcers on illegal drug activitites just by texting, under the Text Cast Project launched on Thursday by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Smart Communications Inc. will PDEA the technology and hardware for the project free of charge, under an agreement it signed with the agency on Thursday at the PDEA headquarters in Quezon City.
PDEA director general Dionisio Santiago hopes to see other telecommunications support the campaign against illegal drugs.
"Only a few of these corporations would give us a positive response as part of their corporate social responsibility," Santiago told reporters at a press conference right after the signing of the MOA.
At first, the program will only cover Metro Manila for two months, under the PDEA Metro Manila Regional Office, which is headed by Senior Superintendent Benjamin Magalong.
"We chose Metro Manila as the pilot area for the project because as we all know it is the nerve center, politically and economically," Santiago said, citing that 52 percent of the drug problem come from National Capital Region (NCR).
He said the new program will complement another tipster project of the PDEA, the Private Eye Program.
Santiago said the information gathered from the Text Cast Project could be covered by the Private Eye program, which rewards the tipster in cash if the data leads to the arrest of big illegal drugs syndicates.
"We cannot dispense of the human factor," he said.
The identities and the mobile numbers of texters would also be held in strict confidentiality, the PDEA official said.
With the new system, Santiago said PDEA would verify the information it gets to make sure that it would not throw off law enforcers in pursuing members of drug syndicates.
PDEA and Smart will make adjustments in the software and hardware before implementing the project nationwide. - GMANews.TV