CMI CONDUCTS FORUM ON WARLORDISM
POSTED BY: RULino
DATE POSTED: 2010-02-05
27 January 2010 - Over seventy (70) participants from different government agencies such as the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Department of National Defense (DND), Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and representatives from the media attended a half day Crisis Management Forum on “Effects of Warlordism and Private Armies on National Security” on January 27, 2010 at the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) Honor Hall, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
The Crisis Management Institute (CMI) of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) organized the Forum which featured three distinguished guest speakers, namely: PDir Jesus A. Verzosa, Chief PNP, BGen. Jaime C. Echeverria (Ret), President, Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) and BGen. Francisco N. Cruz, Commanding General, AFP Civil Relations Service in behalf of the Chief of Staff, AFP. Likewise present as resource persons were Usec. Melchor Rosales of DILG Office for Peace and Order and Transnational Crimes and MGEN Edilberto Adan (Ret), Permanent Adviser of Ze?arosa Commission on Private Armed Groups.
BGen. Echeverria, also a member of the panel of the Ze?arosa Commission said that there are around 132 private armies or private armed groups and over 1 million unlicensed firearms all over the country. The commission was formed last December 2009 by virtue of President Arroyo’s Administrative Order No. 275 in the aftermath of the Maguindanao massacre that left 57 people dead, mostly women and journalists. It seeks the help of some Muslim religious leaders to dismantle private armies specially in Mindanao.
With their experience in dismantling private armies in Abra, the PNP, headed by its Chief P/Dir. Verzosa intends to replicate its success story in other parts of the country. He highlighted the PNP’s accomplishments in Abra making it as a template for other provinces, particularly in conflict areas, to follow what has been done in eradicating private armed groups and maintaining peace and order.
PDir. Verzosa further said that problems arise because majority of local officials in the province hold their office in their own residences. Patronage politics is a common practice. Adding to this are the tendency of some mayors to support the New Peoples Army and other criminal groups. However, this was changed when the PNP began operating against armed groups and upgraded its police stations in every municipality.
BGen. Cruz discussed the creation of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU) and its mandate to support the AFP in counter-insurgency activities. There are however many instances where members of the CAFGU are being influenced to join private armed groups by local politicians for different reasons such as money, power and having close ties to local officials as they are also local residents in the area.
As a Permanent Adviser to the Ze?arosa Commission on Private Armed Groups, Undersecretary Adan explained the plan of the Commission in the short term to reduce numbers of armed groups, and the long term is the drafting of laws and enactment of policies to counter the existence of these groups.
NDCP President Commo. Carlos L. Agustin said that the government, specifically the Ze?arosa Commission must look at the experiences of the US and UK in dealing with the problems posed by private armies or partisan armed groups. He further said that the US Constitution grants the people the rights to bear arms, as well as for states to organize their own militia, which can then be called to duty whenever necessary and under the control of the state Governor. These militias became a unifying factor for the Americans in their aspiration to have sovereign states within the union.
The CMI, formerly the Emergency Management Institute of the Philippines (EMIP) is envisioned to be the country’s center for education, training and research on crisis management and as the premier training resource for technical cooperation in emergency management in Asia Pacific. CMI also conducts regular forum on various emerging issues such as natural or manmade disasters, crisis situations and terrorism. This forum is the sixth (6th) in the series of crisis management forums conducted by the CMI. |
