Asean cops OK task force vs online scams – PNP

MANILA, Philippines – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Chiefs of Police (Aseanapol) approved a task force to combat online scams.

In a press briefing late Saturday afternoon after the 44th Aseanapol conference in Pasay City, hosted by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the latter agency said the project would include “study visits to national anti-scam centers and the regional plan of action against scam-related crimes.”

“This [provides] a coordinated regional framework to address one of today’s fastest-growing transnational threats,” PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said at the briefing.

READ: PNP taps foreign counterparts to track down job scams abroad

“We have established the anti-scam hub [task force] in every country, such that anti-scam hub task forces are in coordination, lalong-lalo na this is transnational crime and the victims are borderless also,” Nartatez added.

“We will put borders [to] these perpetrators of online scam hubs,” he stressed.

The PNP previously said it was tapping its foreign counterparts to track down the recruiters and financiers of alleged job scams and human trafficking abroad.

The Philippine police’s statement came after over 200 Filipinos were rescued from alleged illegal scam hubs in Myanmar and were repatriated by the government last year.

For its part, earlier this week, the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) flagged a decrease in online scams between January and June 2026, compared to the same period in 2025.

ACG director Maj. Gen. Wilson Asueta attributed the drop in online scam cases to the Filipino public’s improved awareness through information campaigns. /jpv