PNP sees less violence in May elections

MANILA, Philippines - The police believe close coordination between the poll body and law enforcement agencies would prevent violence in the May elections even as the military wants Maguindanao placed under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) throughout the election period.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said close coordination among the Comelec, police, the military and other law enforcement agencies would ensure peaceful and orderly polls.

“The computerized election will lessen the burden for the security forces, especially during the counting. There are no more ballots to be transferred, there will be less employment of mobile personnel, so we can concentrate on the other law enforcement functions as directed by Comelec,” he said.

Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said a total gun ban would be effective if Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City remain under a state of emergency until after the elections.

“The important action during the state of emergency is to suppress violence, restore law and order,” he said.

Ferrer said when Maguindanao is placed under Comelec control, it would be like a state of emergency.

“There is also a total gun ban so we are recommending that it would be the Comelec that would be directing us.”

The poll body believes that provinces under a state of emergency will be under its control during the election period.

Sulu had been under a state of emergency following the kidnappings of the three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers.

Maguindanao was under a state of emergency and subsequently placed under martial law after the Maguindanao massacre last Nov. 23.

Lawyer Rey Sumalipao, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Comelec regional director, said they are recommending the areas be placed under Comelec control for the effective implementation of the gun ban and the dismantling of partisan armed groups.

“(During) the election period it has control over the election proceedings, but for economic reasons under the governor,” he said.

“But we are recommending Comelec control of these areas.”

Lawyer Vidzfar Julie, Sulu Comelec provincial director, said they are determined to dismantle the Civilian Volunteers Organization (CVO) in the province since militiamen are not exempted from the gun ban.

“Now it is up to them to justify (the existence of the CVOs),” he said.

Gonzales: False information being spread in Maguindanao

Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said groups are spreading false information that violence has returned to Maguindanao.

Gonzales and Ferrer said many of the news reports about attacks and burning of barangays and looting of offices are false.

Gonzales said the authorities are still trying to find the source of the false information.

“Definitely it will be coming from some quarters of society who do not want the Armed Forces to be seen as an important and stabilizing institution,” Gonzales said.

However, Ferrer said the military has verified some reports of violence.

“But the situation is more of a rido (clan war) between the disbanded Ampatuan CVOs and the MILF,” he said. “It’s personal.”

The reported burning of barangays is not true, he added.

MILF forces are creeping into areas that were earlier under the control of the Ampatuans, Ferrer said.

Residents: We won’t return to massacre site

In Maguindanao, people evacuated from around the site of the massacre in Ampatuan town are still reluctant to return to their homes.

Most of the evacuees are housed in makeshift shelters near a roadside paramilitary detachment.

“We can be subjected to harassment just like what residents in the hinterlands of Shariff Aguak are experiencing now,” a 30-year-old farmer, who asked to be identified only as Samir, said in the Maguindanaon language.

“We are even more vulnerable because we are from the area where the massacre happened.”

The evacuees from Sitio Masalay, where detained Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. and his men were said to have gunned down the 57 victims, are sheltered in colored tarpaulin tents erected on a cornfield along the Isulan-Cotabato Highway.

“That incident has changed our lives,” said Idang, a mother of four. “We shall never live the same way again.”

Col. Jonathan Ponce, Army 6th Infantry Division spokesman, said troops from the 45th Infantry Brigade will be deployed in strategic spots in Ampatuan and nearby towns.

Members of the 45th IB started arriving here two days ago and have positioned themselves around the town hall.

“They will be utilized in line with the efforts of the Armed Forces, through the 6th ID, to address security concerns in the neighboring towns of Shariff Aguak and Ampatuan,” he said.

Ponce said the 6th ID is optimistic that the coming in of another Army battalion to secure hostile areas will help convince the evacuees from Sitio Masalay to return to their homes.

Many evacuees, however, want the soldiers to establish detachments around the site of the Maguindanao massacre.

“Many of us were in the farms around the site of the massacre when it was perpetrated. We were forced to run away when we heard the gunshots,” said Kanot, who owns a corn farm located on a hill overlooking the crime scene.

“How can we not fear for our lives? The government should do something.”

Officials: Gunmen trying to regain lands

In Shariff Aguak, local officials, religious leaders and the military are convinced the gunmen that attacked and wounded four residents of Datu Hofer town the other day are ethnic Maguindanaons trying to regain control of their ancestral lands.

“People here and the police are aware that the detained mayor has an enormous love for that kind of weapon,” a ranking provincial official of the Department of Education said.

“This means there are some members of his militia that are now with the armed groups terrorizing Shariff Aguak. This is something the police and the military should not take lightly.”

Acting Maguindanao police director Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses said barangay chairman Teng Uwang of Upper Limpongo and his three constituents were wounded in the ensuing shootout when his tribe fought the heavily armed band of Commander Pancho.

Lineses has confirmed that the gunmen were armed with K-3 machineguns, once a vital armament of the private militia of the Ampatuan family.

Barangay officials in Limpongo and surrounding districts are known political protégés of former Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr., patriarch of the Ampatuan clan. – Paolo Romero, Roel Pareño, John Unson, Nonong Baliao