|
Philippines New Task Force to Annihilate Kidnap Gangs
By
IOL South East Asia Correspondent
MANILA,
July 12 (IslamOnline) - The Philippines created an Anti-Kidnap task
force that would help neutralize groups like the Abu Sayyaf and bring
peace to the country, news agencies reported on Friday.
Following
the creation of the task force, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
urged the police to neutralize the 21 known kidnapping syndicates
using military tactics applied against the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao,
Manila Times said on Friday.
The
President announced earlier that she has approved the creation of a
new anti-kidnapping force that would be called Police Anti-Crime
Emergency Response or PACER.
The
creation of the task force came after the dissolution of the National
Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf), viewed as not efficient enough to
handle kidnappings in the country.
The
Philippines is currently the hot bed for kidnappers of all kinds, as a
business to extract huge sums of money from the victims’ families.
The
country gained international highlights not for its economic prowess
or thanks to the political extravaganzas of high profile people like
the Marcos’s or Estrada’s, former presidents of the Philippine,
but thanks to the kidnappings carried by the Abu Sayyaf group.
President
Gloria Arroyo said Wednesday that law and order problems including
kidnappings were eroding the Philippines' global competitiveness. She
has pledged to focus her government's efforts over the next year to
stamp out the menace, the Philippine Star said on Thursday.
Police statistics show 47 people were kidnapped in 36 incidents
between January 1 and July 8 this year. Twenty of the cases are still
unsolved, they said, the Star reported.
National
Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane proposed the new task force
after identifying the kidnapping gangs in the order of battle, sources
said.
The
President immediately approved Ebdane’s proposal, saying the new
unit would be made up of well-trained and well-experienced policemen.
“Now
that there is already a list of order of battle, the next step is the
manhunt,” the President said on Wednesday.
She
told the police launch military-type of operations against the
kidnappers, just as the Armed Forces has been doing against the Abu
Sayyaf.
The
President said such a move could be undertaken since the kidnappers
have previously been issued warrants of arrest.
“It
should be like a military operation. It’s like saying, ‘OK we will
get the group of Abu Sabaya in Sirawai or … we will get the MILF in
this area,’” the President stressed.
PACER,
according to Ebdane, will replace the National Anti-Kidnapping Task
Force and will be a composite group of police officers, soldiers and
agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Among
the kidnapping gangs are the Pentagon and the Abu Soffia. Police is
focusing its attention on the Bukala group and the Fajardo group, most
of them operating in Mindanao and some in Manila.
He
said the Bukala and Fajardo groups operate mainly in the metropolis,
but he refused to say who are the gangs’ targets.
The
Pentagon has 190-armed members with more than 400 firearms, police
records indicate.
The
group gained prominence during the kidnapping of Chinese engineer
Zhang Zhong Quiang in Matalam, North Cotabato in 2001.]
The
Police suspects that the Pentagon has links with the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) and operates in areas where there are MILF
concentrations, the latter denied the allegations, saying the group
was a splinter organization having nothing to do with the MILF.
|
