Cops vow to dismantle 93 private armies across RP

With the May 14 polls just two months away and with the creation of a new task force, police have buckled down to work in dismantling private armies of politicians in Mindanao. Sun-Star Zamboanga (www.sunstar.com.ph) reported Saturday that the Philippine National Police expects the composite Task Force Anti-Private Armed Groups (APAGs) to get the job done. As of the latest count by police, there are 93 private armies around the country, most of which are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Garcia added. “The Task Force is solely dedicated to dismantle and disband private armed groups. And even after the elections, the task force will continue to operate," said PNP Directorate for Operations chief Dir. Wilfredo Garcia. Garcia said the task force includes the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Intelligence Group (IG), and the Special Action Force (SAF). CIDG and IG will file charges against private armed groups and their leaders, while the SAF will operate as arresting officers once warrants of arrest have been issued, said Garcia. But Garcia did not name politicians that the PNP suspects to be maintaining such armed groups. He said a region can be classified an election hotspot or area of immediate concern if it has a number of armed groups. Earlier this year, the PNP formed Task Force Hope (Honest, Orderly, Peaceful Elections) to contain election-related violence. The PNP had said it will undergo a continuing education on human rights to upgrade its doctrines on its role as protector and maintainer of law and order. PNP chief Oscar Calderon ordered all police commanders nationwide to invite their respective regional directors for human rights to conduct lectures to PNP personnel on subjects related to human rights. Calderon said the lectures should also cover the theory and practice of universal value of “freedom with sense of responsibility," and other democratic tenets and how these are practiced and observed in the society. He said this will ensure that “the values of freedom, democracy and justice are not lost and are consciously and systematically inculcated as well as to ensure that the nation’s complicated justice system that the PNP is duty bound to implement is fully understood." The PNP chief admitted the order stemmed from the findings of the Melo Commission and UN rapporteur Philip Alston calling for the “rethinking and reorienting of policy" of the PNP especially in handling cases related to extra-judicial killings. But Calderon refuted the propaganda being spread against the PNP by the communist movement and their frontline organizations that the PNP is a reactionary institution. “The PNP is a dynamic and modernizing institution and is conscious of its thrust to address the problems bedeviling our society. As part of this dynamism is the consistent upgrading of the intellectual capabilities of its officers and legal minds so as to make us a viable entity in the environment of rapidly developing information and communication technology," said Calderon. - GMANews.TV