With the rising number of killings involving village
officials and other political leaders in towns and villages tagged as political
hot spots in Masbate, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Bicol regional
office on Thursday sent a battalion of elite police unit to prevent the growing
political tension prevailing in that Bicol island-province.
Police Senior Insp. Maria Luisa Calubaquib, PNP Bicol
spokesperson, said a battalion of police force coming from the newly
reactivated Regional Service-Oriented Task Group (RSOTG) arrived on the same
after the PNP Central Command and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued
the green light for the RSOTG to prevent political violence that might disrupt
and mar the May elections.
Calubaquib said the special task group was created to ensure
that peace and order will reign in the province that was declared by the
Comelec as among the priority provinces in the election watch-list areas
(EWAs).
Police Chief Supt. Augusto Marquez, PNP Bicol regional
director, assigned Police Senior Supt. Lito Pitallano, deputy regional director
for operation (DRDO), as commander of the RSOTG.
The RSOTG will provide security measures that would be
needed during the election period.
The group will also track down loose firearms holders and private
armed groups (PAGs), including the communist rebel group operating in the
province.
The battalion-size PNP task force came from the police
forces from Bicol’s six provinces, Regional Public Safety Battalion and a
company of Special Action Force unit from the PNP national headquarters,
Calubaquib said.
Meanwhile, another sizable unit of the Philippine Army will
join the RSOTG to enhance the security force of the task group.
A series of killings has taken place since January to date,
the police reported, bringing the death toll to seven persons gunned down by
unidentified assailants in the towns of San Jacinto, Placer, Monreal and Masbate City
In the 2013 Election, the TF Masbate was formed to oversee
the security operations in the province tagged by military and police as a “hot
spot” area due to intense political rivalries and the presence of PAGs and
communist rebels.
Masbate has been consistently been tagged as an election hot
spot in previous elections because of the intense political rivalries among
clans there, including election-related violence, that have claimed the lives
of hundreds of people in the province.
In past election events, the Comelec and the PNP have
identified the provinces of Masbate , Camarines
Sur and Camarines Norte as election areas of concern due to intense political
rivalries and the presence of PAGs and the NPA rebels.
Based on the list, Masbate
has the most number of villages that have been placed under Comelec control,
with 40 villages in 18 towns.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=854355
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