PNP ups security: 3 gov’t VIPs ambushed in 7 days

SURVIVOR Ali Tabao, one of Surigao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr.’s staff, recuperates from his wounds from a hail of bullets during an ambush on the governor’s convoy on Feb. 17 in Bukidnon province. The governor survived but four people died in the attack, the first of three on local officials in just a week. —Richel V. Umel

Philippine National Police chief General Rodolfo Azurin Jr. has ordered all police regional directors to check whether government officials in their areas were being provided with enough security following the third attack against an incumbent official in just a week.

He told reporters on Friday that the regional police chiefs should start conducting a “threat assessment” on each of these officials to determine whether PNP security was inadequate or sufficient.

“We want to know if these government officials have perceived enemies in their areas, who are either active or lying low, so that we can inform them if they need to beef up their security,” Azurin said.

The latest ambush victim was Mayor Ohto Caumbo Montawal of Datu Montawal town in the newly created Maguindanao del Sur province, who was wounded in the hip and left arm by shots fired by one of two men on a motorcycle in Pasay City on Wednesday night.

Montawal was in Manila to attend the Feb. 21 to Feb. 23 general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines held at Manila Hotel.

Police said Montawal was traveling in a Toyota Hi-Ace van on the service road of Roxas Boulevard around 9:25 p.m. when the two men drove alongside his vehicle and one fired at him.The mayor was first taken to Ospital ng Maynila and transferred later to Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa City.

Two spent cartridges from an unknown firearm were recovered at the scene. Police are reviewing closed-circuit television cameras around the area.

The first attack on a local official this year occurred on Feb. 17 in Kalilangan town in Bukidnon province, wounding Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal “Bombit” Adiong Jr. and his aide Ali Tabao.His driver, identified only as Kobi, and three of his police escorts—Police Staff Sgt. Mohammad Jurai Adiong, Cpl. Johanie Sumandar and Cpl. Jalil Cosain—died in the ambush.

In the second attack two days later, Aparri, Cagayan Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda and five of his companions—John Duane Alameda, Abraham Ramos Jr., Ismael Nanay, Alexander delos Angeles and Alvin Abel—were killed in Bagabag town, Nueva Vizcaya province.

Witnesses told police that Alameda’s assailants were wearing Army uniforms, not police uniforms as earlier reported.

Government car

Their alleged getaway vehicle—a white Mitsubishi Adventure with a red license plate number SFN 713, indicating that it was a government car—was found abandoned and burned at Barangay Uddiawan in Nueva Vizcaya’s Solano town, 19 kilometers away.

Azurin said that current policies allowed elected officials to get only two officers to serve as their armed bodyguards from the PNP’s Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG).

“But it does not mean that when they get out of their areas of responsibility the local police will not secure them anymore,” he said.

Under a 2019 PNP memorandum circular, local chief executives are entitled to a maximum of two security personnel from the PSPG, while other local government officials may get not more than two officers to serve as security details from either the PSPG or a private protection agency accredited by the PNP.

In “highly exceptional cases,” they may request for a maximum of six additional security officers, either from the PNP or private security agencies.

‘Zero crime target’

Azurin said the PNP “wanted to achieve zero crime against our elected and appointed officials” and that they were looking into whether there was a pattern in the three attacks since these happened when the officials were traveling.

Police Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo, who assumed his new post as chief of the National Capital Region Police Office on Friday, said he had relayed Azurin’s order to the five Metro Manila police district directors.

Check death threats

“We want to check if there are mayors who are facing threats, but they are not just talking about it in public,” said Okubo, who was the director of the Special Action Force prior to his new assignment.

He said they would be conducting simulation exercises on preventing such attacks or catching the perpetrators.

In a statement from his hospital bed in Cagayan de Oro City on Thursday, Adiong indicated that those who were responsible for the ambush were people who were hurting from his antinarcotics campaign, adding that the attack won’t deter him.

“I am not afraid to fight illegal drugs. If I will be afraid, who will defend the people of the province?” he said.

Adiong said it was unlikely that political rivalry between the Adiong and the Alonto families or other clans was the motive for the attack as there were no ongoing feuds among them.

The political families normally mend fences with their rivals after each election, he added.

Adiong was en route to Wao town when his convoy was waylaid in Maguing town which has been notorious for drug trading.

Marijuana plants

Last year, authorities destroyed marijuana plants worth P17 million in Maguing’s Barangay Bato-Bato, the same place where police and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) destroyed P5 million worth of marijuana just a day after the ambush.

Maguing Mayor Fahad Molok told the Inquirer that officials were working hard to clear the town of illegal drugs.

He said that PDEA last year declared 10 of the town’s 34 villages free of drugs.

—WITH REPORTS FROM RICHEL V. UMEL AND RYAN ROSAURO

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