200 cops identified with ‘Ping’ transferred to Mindanao

At least 200 policeman, perceived to be close to former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, were reassigned to Mindanao and other far-flung areas of the country.

The transfer orders of the former members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) came on the heels of coup rumors that swept the country over the past two weeks.

Former PAOCTF members called their reassignment "unjust and politically motivated" and said they will appeal the case "before the proper forum."

"We strongly felt and believed that the orders issued by higher headquarters on us were unjust and politically motivated with a touch of personal vengeance towards former members of the PAOCTF," the former PAOCTF members said in a statement.

"The decision to reassign us was unfair as it hit us by surprise. We were denied the right to know the immediate cause of our transfer as most of us were performing regular duties at our respective units," the statement said.

"It was unjust since we are reassigned to police units far from our places of residence. We felt that we were thrown like garbage into the trash," the statement added.

The reassignment order, signed by PNP personnel chief Director Jose Lalisan Jr., is expected to further sow divisiveness among the ranks of the police organization, the policemen said.

The former PAOCTF members claimed Malacañang ordered Lalisan to issue the reassignment orders, bypassing PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

The former PAOCTF members claimed that there are strong indications that the influential people behind their reassignment had a personal grudge against Lacson.

Most of the policemen affected by the order were involved in the anti-kidnapping, anti-robbery and anti-bombing operations of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), headed by Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco.

Lacson was appointed PNP chief at the outset of the term of former President Joseph Estrada but resigned on Jan. 21, 2001 after Estrada stepped down from office because of the people power II uprising.

Estrada also created the PAOCTF, patterned after the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) which he headed as vice president, and appointed Lacson to head the anti-crime agency.

Lacson resigned from the PNP after policemen, led by former PNP chief Leandro Mendoza, threatened to "withdraw support" from Lacson. However, PAOCTF men had also been linked to a number of high-profile crimes, including the kidnapping-murder of known publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, the kidnapping of casino employee Edgar Bentain, and drug smuggling, among other cases.

The government has tried to link Lacson to these crimes with Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus exposing the senator’s alleged wrongdoings, including laundering the proceeds of drug and kidnapping crimes in several overseas banks.

But the government has so far failed to find conclusive evidence that Lacson was indeed guilty of their accusations. Lacson ran for the Senate in May 2001 under Estrada’s coalition and won.