DILG chief admits 'negligence' played role in Agusan hostage crisis

Negligence on the part of the government may have played a role resulting in the recent hostage crisis in Prosperidad town in Agusan del Sur province, a senior government official admitted Thursday. Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo said the police and military should have been stricter in recalling the firearms of decommissioned Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) members. “When we downsized our CAFGU forces, we may have failed to recall government-issued firearms from the decommissioned members. So now there is a directive to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to retrieve these firearms. Otherwise we could become vulnerable to similar incidents in the future," he said in Filipino in an interview on dwIZ radio. When asked if decommissioned CAFGU members should have turned over their weapons, he said, “dapat ganoon subali’t sa pangyayaring ito mukhang nagpabaya (it should have been that way, but there may have been some negligence in this case)." He noted the CAFGU members had been mobilized to fight communist rebels in the provinces, but the Aquino administration downsized the CAFGUs when it took over the helm of government last year. On the other hand, Robredo said the relatively bloodless resolution to the Agusan crisis was partly due to lessons learned from last year’s Manila hostage fiasco on August 23 last year. Last April 1, armed men took hostage at least 15 people near a school in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur. They demanded the release of their relative Ondo Perez, who was linked to a hostage incident in 2009. The armed men eventually “abandoned" the hostages before dawn Wednesday, as the crisis entered its sixth day. Authorities insisted no ransom was paid for the hostages’ liberty. Robredo also said pursuit operations for the hostage-takers are still ongoing. “From what I know, after the hostages were released, AFP and PNP units have fanned out to areas where the suspects are believed to have fled," he said. Lessons from Aug 23 crisis Robredo said the government also applied several lessons it learned from last year’s hostage crisis in resolving the Agusan incident peacefully. Last Aug. 23, eight Hong Kong tourists died along with hostage-taker dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza following a botched rescue effort. An investigation on the Manila hostage crisis also showed there were several lapses during the negotiation phase. "We applied a lot of lessons. First, President Aquino stressed we must be patient and engage the hostage-takers in peaceful negotiations. Second, after the Aug. 23 incident, we trained our crisis management committee members on negotiations," Robredo said when asked if the government applied lessons from the Aug. 23 incident to the Agusan del Sur crisis. In the Agusan del Sur incident, he said the crisis management committee managed to clearly define the roles of the negotiators. “Sa Prosperidad (town), malinaw kung sino ang kausap sino ang kasama, ano ang paraan, ano ang sistema. Ito bahagi ng nakita nating problema noong nakaraang hostage taking sa Quirino Grandstand. Hindi natin pwedeng itanggi marami tayong natutunan," he said.