Cuevas vows arresting cops illegally tagging along with politicians
No moonlighting, please.
PNP Regional Director Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas warned policemen that they shall be arrested if they provided security to politicians without authority from concerned agencies.
Cuevas issued the warning in the heels of reports that some politicians might be gathering their own manpower to create a private armed group (PAG).
He claimed that the campaign against PAGs is one of their priorities to dispel violence in the forthcoming May 2010 elections.
“That’s why, we will be having a conference on that and we will be recommending to the politicians to look for probable personnel from the PNP to be their special protection elements because kung if a politician indeed need a security, we will have it properly documented so that they will not be resorting to using policemen, military men to be their security without proper clearance,” he added.
Cuevas stressed, “so, along the way, the security are tagging, they shall be identified because if they do not have the proper authority, they shall be arrested.”
The PNP regional commander explained that members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and any armed services for that matter, are not authorized to be with politicians if they don’t have any authority from the Joint Security Committee composed of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the AFP, and the PNP.
“We control the personnel security and not that the politicians will be getting their own security. Instead, we will provide them security of their own choice—either PNP or AFP personnel,” he added.
Cuevas bared that there is also a suggestion that they could hire at least two security guards provided by the PNP.
“They would be properly trained so that they could not be used as a private armed group,” he added.
There was also a suggestion that an ‘under threat’ politician could get four personnel but “that suggestion is still subject to the approval of the COMELEC,” Cuevas said.
Meanwhile, for a group to be considered as PAG, it only needs two or more armed persons.
“Kung siya pulis, naga upod siya sa isa ka politician without any proper authority and they are two of them, they are considered as private armed group or partisan armed group,” he further explained.
As this developed, Cuevas said that they have not monitored any private armed group in Iloilo.
