Philippines-wide ‘alsa masa’ eyed

DILG: No death squads, just volunteers

MANILA, Philippines - In an effort to involve more citizens in its campaign against illegal drugs, the government is considering taking a page from the playbook of a defunct anti-communist vigilante group based in Davao City – the Alsa Masa.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ismael Sueno said yesterday they hope to revive the concept of the Alsa Masa (masses rising) to make citizens across the country – and not just in Davao – more involved in anti-crime efforts, but in a “non-violent” way.

He stressed it is volunteerism and not vigilantism which the government intends to foster in invoking the concept of Alsa Masa, a group associated with death squads in Davao.

“We will institute volunteerism. Maybe this organization can also come up with what needs to be implemented in the barangay level,” Sueno told members of the House of Representatives’ appropriations committee during a hearing on the DILG’s budget.

“We will launch this concept in the middle of this month,” he said, adding they intend to name the group Mamamasid, or Mamamayang Ayaw sa Anomalya at Iligal na Droga.

This will in effect be the eyes and ears of the national government in the grassroots level as the administration of President Duterte pursues its sustained and relentless campaign against the proliferation of drugs in the streets.

Intelligence gathered by the group – to comprise concerned citizens who want their communities to be drug-free – will be presented to the Philippine National Police, which in turn will do the investigation and carry out the necessary arrests and seizures.

“We intend to organize this group. This is the mandate of the President in his campaign against illegal drugs,” Sueño told the appropriations committee headed by Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles.

The DILG chief said “no allocation” has yet been made for the project, as he refuted claims by some lawmakers the organization being envisioned may only duplicate the functions of other anti-drug agencies of government, like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Dangerous Drugs Board.

“The DDB and PDEA have no personnel down to the barangay level, while this group will have members practically everywhere,” the DILG chief emphasized. “We will make sure that this is fully organized, although this is still in the developing concept stage.”

The Alsa Masa, founded by the late Jun Pala, became notorious in the mid-1980s for targeting communists and their sympathizers in Davao City and other parts of Mindanao.

The Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs has claimed more than 2,000 lives since he assumed the presidency on June 30. Police said those killed in police operations were only about 900.