Villar shelves independent security plan

Senate President Manuel Villar has temporarily shelved plans to form an independent security force whose sole responsibility is the Senate’s security after the Philippine National Police (PNP) balked on its move to withdraw police officers detailed there.

"It’s not needed right now. The proposal calls that we might need such a security force," Villar told reporters, adding that an independent police force would mean additional expenses.

The Senate’s security is the responsibility of the sergeant-at-arms, which also has control of eight police officers detailed at the chamber.

Earlier, the PNP planned to withdraw all eight officers detailed there for their alleged involvement in the arrest of Presidential Commission on Good Government Chairman Camilo Sabio.

Sabio was cited for contempt after refusing to answer questions in a Senate inquiry on the PCGG’s performance over the past years. He argued that the law exempted the PCGG from legislative oversight.

Villar said the officers only did their jobs and should be commended. The Senate had earlier passed a resolution condemning the decision to withdraw the police detail.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon told Villar in a meeting last Tuesday that the eight officers — all with the PNP’s crack Special Action Force — will stay.

They will be reassigned to the PNP’s Police Security Protection Office, which provides security to senior government officials, embassies and VIPs. Calderon explained that it made sense to place the Senate’s security under that office.

Calderon denied any political color in the initial plan to withdraw the eight officers, saying the decision was made a month before Sabio’s arrest.

He emphasized that the SAF, being a commando force, is needed in the government’s counter-insurgency operations against the New People’s Army communist rebels. — Christina Mendez