Ecija cops grilled on political killings

CABANATUAN CITY—Director General Ricardo Marquez, chief of the Philippine National Police, directed the Nueva Ecija police to determine whether recent murders in the province were not political in nature.

In a March 11 meeting with provincial police officials, Marquez called their attention for dismissing the recent killings as nonpolitical “without the support of evidence.”

These killings included those of Cabanatuan village heads Roger Pascual of Camp Tinio and Cesar Baltazar of General Luna, and a village chief in Cabiao town early this year. All these cases have not been solved.

“Gauging by their responses to my questions as to whether these murders were election-related, I realized they did not have a thorough grasp of these cases. They did not provide me definitive answers,” Marquez told reporters.

“I need to hear evidence that these were not election-related cases because, like what I’ve said…, we are supposed to be investigators. We are not supposed to be speculators,” he said.

Marquez was here as part of a tour by the PNP directorate staff to determine the progress in the preparation of security measures for the May 9 elections.

The meeting was also attended by officials of the Army and the Commission on Elections in Nueva Ecija.

Marquez also ordered the local police to conduct an inventory of guns licensed to or under the custody of local governments, which, he said, could be misused during the election period. Some towns, he said, were previously allowed to buy high-powered firearms as a safeguard against insurgency.

The Nueva Ecija police had confiscated 70 assorted firearms in simultaneous raids in the province and arrested 40 people for possessing unlicensed guns.

In a recent visit to Quezon province, Marquez said private armed groups, most of these operating in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), remained the biggest threats in the conduct of peaceful elections in May.

Citing intelligence reports, he said about 85 percent of armed groups in the country are based in ARMM.

“The order of President Aquino is to dismantle the operation of [these] groups,” he said.

Marquez also identified Pangasinan, Masbate, Western Samar, Negros Oriental, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao as the “priority provinces” in the PNP’s campaign against private armies.

Marquez said areas where armed goons operate have been classified as Category 1 in the government’s election watchlist while areas where New People’s Army (NPA) rebels operate are considered Category 2. Provinces where armed groups and NPA rebels both operate are classified as Category 3. Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon, with a report from Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon