GMA to launch new body to fight organized crime

President Arroyo is set to create a "superbody" that would coordinate all government efforts in combating organized crime, from kidnapping for ransom to money laundering.

The President named Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo as chairman of the 16-member National Anti-Crime Council (NACC) that will take over the anti-crime functions of various special units and task forces, except the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said the President will soon issue an order creating the NACC, which will have Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina as vice chairman.

"We believe that this NACC would be a more coordinated response to the crime problem," Tiglao said. "There will be sharing of data, resources and implementing units."

The council would include nine Cabinet members and seven private sector representatives, including two from the Filipino-Chinese community which has been a favorite hunting ground of kidnappers.

The eight departments are the interior and local government, justice, national defense and military, foreign affairs, finance, environment and natural resources, agriculture, and national security.

The police have also raised concerns about Singaporeans becoming victims of kidnappings over the past two months.

The NACC will have initial funding of P20 million to be taken from the President’s contingency fund.

"This time, it will be a national body... that will undertake a comprehensive approach to the crime problem," Tiglao said.

"We intend to have closer links with the private sector which could even (apply) pressure on the government to do its job in crime fighting," he added.

Under the draft executive order, the NACC will have jurisdiction over kidnapping, gunrunning, illegal logging, robbery, white slavery, illegal recruitment, car theft, smuggling, piracy, drug trafficking, falsification of land titles, large scale film piracy, counterfeiting and bank fraud.

The NACC budget will be incorporated in next year’s General Appropriations Act, Tiglao said.

As envisioned by Mrs. Arroyo, the NACC will try not to replicate the controversial Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) once headed by her jailed predecessor, former President Joseph Estrada.

"The PACC had a very ad hoc kind of character. The roles of the various departments were not clear. And the PACC had its task forces," Tiglao noted.

He said neither will the NACC go the way of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force whose functions encroached upon the responsibilities of the PNP. – Marichu Villanueva