State of emergency in Maguindanao to last until after May polls

The military has recommended that the state of emergency declared on Maguindanao province and two other key Mindanao areas be prolonged until after the May 2010 elections. “As soon as maka-assume na iyung new set of officials, then we will recommend to them na pwede na tayo mag-normalize," said Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, chief of the Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom), in an ambush interview in Malacañang Monday. (As soon as the new officials have been elected, then we will recommend that the state of emergency be lifted.) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has placed Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City under state of emergency last November 24, a day after 57 people, most of them women and journalists, were massacred in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. Ferrer said the declaration was necessary as it would allow security officials to “suppress violence, restore law and order" in the province. Following the declaration of the state of emergency, the Philippine National Police (PNP) dismantled its entire force in Maguindanao. Ferrer said the reorganization of the police force in the province is still ongoing and would be completed in three to four months. “Habang wala pang elections (while the election is still months away), we have time to reorganize the police," he said. Security forces are still hunting for 200 to 300 armed men in Maguindanao believed to be part of the private armed group of the Ampatuan family, a powerful political clan blamed for the massacre. Ferrer said some of these men are members of the military’s civilian volunteers organization (CVO) who have shifted allegiance to the Ampatuans. - KBK, GMANews.TV