PNP vows to dismantle 68 private armed groups

MANILA, Philippines - Police have identified 68 private armies nationwide and aim to neutralize them before the May 10 elections.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa activated yesterday the Special Task Group to monitor whether the partisan armed groups have increased or decreased.

The Directorate for Intelligence has validated 68 partisan groups nationwide, except in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which would be considered separately.

The most number of private armies are found in the Ilocos Region 1 with 11, closely followed by Calabarzon Region and Northern Mindanao with nine and Eastern Visayas with eight.

Western Visayas has seven private armies, Cagayan Valley, six; Bicol, five; Cordillera Autonomous Region, four; Central Visayas, three; and Central Luzon, Mimaropa Region and Caraga Region, two partisan armed groups each.

No private armies are operating in Metro Manila.

Verzosa said the Special Task Group would immediately serve arrest warrants against members of partisan armed groups wanted by the law.

The gun ban would be strictly enforced in areas where private armies are operating, he added.

Verzosa said private armies are organized by unscrupulous politicians during elections to further their political ambitions.

“All (partisan armed group) members with arrest warrants should be arrested and placed behind bars while the firearms they are carrying should be accounted for,” he said.

Armed men raid candidate’s house

About 30 armed men raided the house of a candidate for vice mayor in Claveria town in Masbate last Saturday.

Inspector Dionel Moratalya, Claveria town police chief, said the armed men took an M16 rifle from the house of Lakas-Kampi-CMD vice mayoralty candidate Monching Rodan in Barangay Taguilid.

Rodan was not in his residence at the time, he added.

Moratalya immediately ordered his men to go after the armed men who were wearing camouflage uniforms without nameplates.

Police are investigating the raid.

Last Dec. 7, Jesus Chu, a provincial board member who wants to run as vice mayor of Uson, Masbate, was shot by two gunmen in front of the Southern Bicol Colleges on Mabini street in Masbate City.

Chu was rushed to the Masbate Doctor’s Hospital and airlifted to Metro Manila for further treatment. The suspects remain at large.

Masbate has been identified as one the political hotspots in the country.   — Non Alquitran, Celso Amo