Hontiveros: Reviving ‘Alsa Masa-like network” may provoke more extrajudicial killings

Senator Risa Hontiveros warned on Monday that reviving an Alsa Masa-like network “will only provoke more extrajudicial killings.”

“I fear that reviving an Alsa Masa-like network will only provoke more extrajudicial killings in the country,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“It will also further blacken the already tarnished reputation of the PNP (Philippine National Police) and isolate it from the public. And this time around, the police force will have no teleserye to blame for its diminished public credibility,” she added.

The opposition senator issued the statement following reports that the PNP is mulling the establishment of a civilian network similar to the Alsa Masa group in a bid to expand community support in the fight against crime, especially illegal drugs.

READ: IN THE KNOW: Alsa Masa 

READ: PNP mulls over Alsa Masa-like network

The senator noted that Alsa Masa was “a dreaded paramilitary group in the 1980s notorious for its lawless activities, human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings of suspected “enemies of the state.”

For the PNP to “draw inspiration” from the said group “is not only foolish, it is tacit approval of the group’s atrocious legacy and an invitation to more extrajudicial killings.” /ee