Mayors seek operational control of militia units

Town mayors in the country want operational control of militia Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs) to spearhead anti-insurgency and anti-criminality campaigns in their municipalities.

Binalonan, Pangasinan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr., president of the 1,496-strong League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), said his group will ask Congress to transfer more than 30,000 CAFGUs from the defense department to the interior department.

"Our drive against criminality will be more effective if we have control and supervision over the CAFGUs," Guico said.

He said the anti-crime drive in the countryside often suffers setbacks because of the lack of policemen to respond to crime incidents, particularly those perpetrated by organized syndicates.

Guico said local officials are often helpless against criminality because the syndicates are better armed than policemen.

In some areas, he said barangay tanods often refuse to respond to crime incidents because they don’t have firearms to fight criminals.

He said CAFGUs, which are under military control in rebel-infested areas, can be an effective deterrent against criminality.

Earlier, the LMP also sought the return of the power to hire and fire policemen so that they can lead the fight against criminals in their areas of jurisdiction.

However, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said the move would violate a constitutional provision stating that there must be only one civilian national police in the country.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina said that under the Local Government Code, town mayors already have certain powers over the police units in their respective localities.

He said, however, that mayors should first be deputized by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to formalize their control over police units and pledge to conduct a mass deputation of town mayors.