Probe on politicians allegedly protecting criminals pushed

CEBU, Philippines - With the campaign season for the 2010 polls about to begin, Councilor Edgardo Labella is urging local authorities to probe reports of politicians allegedly protecting criminal syndicates as a way to gain campaign funds.

In a resolution, Labella said reports of a mayor in Luzon allegedly protecting the Alvin Flores gang, the group responsible for the controversial robbery of a Rolex store at Greenbelt, should be enough to alarm authorities.

He said the report even calls for a thorough police investigation to unmask other politicians who are protecting criminal elements.

Flores and three alleged members of his group were killed during a shootout with agents of the National Bureau of Investigation at a beach house in Estaca, Compostela last week.

The Flores gang has been accused of several bigtime robberies in Metro Manila and other parts of the country that prompted the NBI agents to launch a nationwide manhunt against them and successfully traced them in their hideout in Compostela.

While there is no strong indication that local politicians are engaged in such modus operandi, the fact that Flores’ gang had sought refuge in Cebu “makes the idea of having some local politicians coddling and protecting criminal elements not far-fetched.”

 “By providing election campaign funds to local officials, criminal syndicates are said to develop effective means of ensuring their protection against police operations,” Labella said.

In 1989, then Metro District Command (Metrodiscom) chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson implicated a northern Cebu town mayor into the robbery of a bank in Mandaue City, which also involved five Army soldiers.

Labella said “the above fact also does not discredit the alarm and public interest for vigilance over, and strict enforcement of, laws against crimes that are inclined to rise with the nearing of campaign and election periods.”

Once the City Council approves Labella’s resolution, a copy of the document will be furnished to Police Regional Director Lani-o Nerez and to Camp Crame. — Rene U. Borromeo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)