Equal protection
With lawmakers expressing concern over a spate of ambushes targeting local elected officials, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has ordered the Philippine National Police to crack down on loose firearms and dismantle private armed groups.
The crackdown was ordered following the ambush in Lanao del Sur on Feb. 17 that wounded Gov. Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr. and left four members of his convoy dead, followed by the ambush in Nueva Vizcaya on Feb. 19 that killed Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda of Aparri, Cagayan and five of his companions. On Feb. 22, Mayor Ohto Montawal of Datu Montawal in Maguindanao del Sur was wounded in an ambush along the service road of Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin said all police resources would be used to hunt down the perpetrators. But doesn’t this go without saying? As for the DILG directive, it’s not the first time that such measures have been ordered. The public hears such directives not only with every change in the national leadership, but also during every election period.
A common knee-jerk reaction to ambushes targeting politicians is to increase stateprovided security to VIPs. The PNP, however, has only 220,000 personnel. Assigning cops as bodyguards of politicians, members of the judiciary and other public officials deprives the majority of the population of state-funded protection, which should be accorded equally to everyone in this country including resident aliens and foreign visitors.
Often, those governmentpaid security escorts also end up becoming part of their principal’s private armies, which the DILG wants dismantled. Many politicians also own large arsenals, for their personal use and for their bodyguards on the public payroll, even if gun ownership for civilians is supposed to be strictly limited.
The massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009 was just the most heinous example of a political clan using government security forces as its private army to carry out a grisly crime. When the mansions of the Ampatuan clan were raided following the massacre, crates of high-powered guns bearing markings of the Department of National Defense armory and PNP were found.
Considering the limited law enforcement resources and personnel, the better approach is to ensure that everyone in this country is provided equal protection from armed threats and criminality. Why should only a privileged few enjoy bodyguards at taxpayers’ expense? Surely VIPs can pay for their own personal protection, without tapping into extremely limited state resources and manpower. Everyone is entitled to protection from personal harm.