Cuevas: Cong. Tupas has no private army
Yes, Cong. Niel “Jun-Jun” Tupas, Jr. (Fifth District, Iloilo) has indeed an armed group with him.
But before the public could raise an eyebrow into this, PNP Regional Director Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas clarified that these “armed men” are nothing but the solon’s official security detail from the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Cuevas’ reaction stemmed from reports that quoted Vice Governor Rolex Suplico to have accused Tupas of keeping a private armed group.
Suplico and Tupas are cousins. They are running against each other for the congressional seat of the fifth district of Iloilo.
“Iya (Suplico) lang ina allegation but we have to validate that. What I know is that Cong.Tupas has his own security personnel who are policemen. Governor (Niel Tupas, Sr.) has his own security detail also. They have a number of personnel with them because several of their family members are local officials,” Cuevas explained.
The region’s top cop said that they have been checking into the report and so far, “may armed group siya pero pulis.”
Although the Committee on the Ban on Firearms and Security Personnel (CBFSP) of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to act on the granting of personnel detail to the Tupases, it was surmised that they have secured a permit from the Regional Joint Security Control Center (R-JSCC) to have a temporary security detail for 30 days.
“As to reports nga civilian nga ga upod-upod sa ila nga gadala armas, wala kami ka monitor,” Cuevas said.
He also directed Regional Intelligence Division (RID) chief Senior Supt. Cornelio Defensor and Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) director Senior Supt. Renato Gumban to intensify their intelligence information gathering “so that we could have that properly validated.”
Further, Cuevas said that it would also put them on bad light to issue statements identifying who keeps private armed groups without validation,
“On our part, we would continue monitoring them and intensify our intelligence operations so that we could be sure nga ang mga tawo nga ga upod sa ila are policemen or from the AFP,” he added.
The PNP regional chief said that they could not just label a person to be keeping a private armed group (PAG), which he claimed, is very hard to define.
“Two or more, whether legal of legal, persons with legally pr illegally-possessed firearms could be considered a PAG. Now, if there are legal persons like PNP nga nakaupod dira sa candidate, sila gina consider as private armed group. Even if the firearm is legal, that’s private armed group,” he stressed.
Unless a thorough validation is done, there’s always room for doubt that a local chief executive’s alleged “private armed group” could be members of the security provided by the PNP.
