MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police can recommend to the Commission on Elections the disqualification of any electoral candidate found to be connected to the gruesome killing of over 20 people in Maguindanao province, consisting mainly of women and journalists, a ranking official said on Tuesday.
“[If found liable], then we push for the disqualification of the candidate,” said Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano, the head of Task Force Hope overseeing security preparations for the coming 2010 national elections.
Soriano said the killings in Maguindanao were a “grave concern” not only for the law enforcement agencies but also for the Comelec, all of which vowed to make the upcoming elections peaceful.
“It’s a cause for grave concern for all the law enforcement agencies, the AFP, and the Comelec. Can you imagine about 100, if the reports are true, armed groups converged? So it’s really a grave concern for us,” Soriano said in a phone interview.
He revealed that the private army mobilized in the killings was connected to the mayor of Datu Unsay town, Andal Ampatuan Jr., but which was not part of the list of the PNP.
“Yun dun sa mayor na Ampatuan. Wala sa report natin yun It’s connected to Mayor Ampatuan. We don’t have that in our report]. Ngayon [Now] we’re on the process of validating and updating, after ng gun amnesty natin [after our gun amnesty], we’ll have an update on the private armed groups,” Soriano said.
Police are still waiting for private armies to surrender their firearms while the gun amnesty still stands until November 30, said Soriano, after which, the PNP will launch intensified operations against these groups.
“This is one of the reasons why we are pushing hard for a nationwide gun ban,” he added.
Soriano, however, said that they were still studying if Maguindanao would be tagged an election hotspot in 2010.
“We will make the appropriate recommendation based on what the Chief, PNP will see on the ground,” he said.
PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa is in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.
