GMA confirms PNP training deal with Israeli commandos

President Arroyo confirmed yesterday the Philippine National Police (PNP) has a long-standing "commercial arrangement" with Israeli anti-terror experts to train crack Filipino police commandos.

The training exercise under Israeli police experts, the President said, is part of the anti-kidnapping measures her administration has been implementing since last year as her commitment to the Filipino-Chinese community which is often victimized by kidnap-for ransom syndicates.

She disclosed in her weekly radio interview yesterday that "some of them (the Israelis) are already living here in the Philippines," adding that the training is a commercial arrangement, unlike the training with Scotland Yard and the Hong Kong Police which is done on a "government to government" basis.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo asked police authorities yesterday to be more prudent and defer the plan for Israeli police experts to train police security forces on counter-terrorism.

He pointed out that the Palestinians and the Israelis are locked in a life-and-death struggle, with the Arab world supporting the Palestinians.

"Without passing judgment on who is right and who is wrong, the fact remains that if we enlist the help of the Israelis, it can rub the country’s Arab friends the wrong way," Arroyo argued.

The President stressed that these training programs for the PNP with Israeli police experts, Scotland Yard and the Hong Kong Police are all part of the anti-kidnapping campaign of the Philippine government.

"If you remember, while the kidnapping incidence was serious in Metro Manila, I met with the Chinese community and I asked them for proposals," she recalled. One of their proposals, she said, was to train our police forces with Scotland Yard, the Hong Kong Police and Israeli experts.

"So this is the result of the proposal by the Chinese community," she pointed out.

The President earlier expressed confidence that her administration’s anti-kidnapping and anti-terrorism campaign will get a boost from the Scotland Yard training of Gen. Florencio Fianza, who recently arrived from London and has prepared a training curriculum for the PNP.

She sent Fianza to Scotland Yard on the police training program offered by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during their meeting in London last January.

Mrs. Arroyo also earlier instructed Fianza to prepare a similar training curriculum for the PNP patterned after the police training program offered by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region CEO Chung Tee-wah with whom she met last year when she visited the former Crown Colony.

During the same radio interview, the Preisdent reiterated the government’s "no-ransom policy" in dealing with kidnap-for-ransom syndicates to deprive kidnappers of the loot which they share with poor people they enlist as their supporters.

She cited the government’s intensified campaign against poverty as the best solution to end the scourge of kidnapping in the country.

"It is important (to win) the battle (for the) hearts and minds (of the people). The ultimate solution is to fight poverty especially in southwestern Mindanao where kidnapping cases continue," she said.

In calling for greater prudence in enlisting the help of Israelis in the counter-terror training of the PNP, Senator Arroyo reasoned we should avoid angering the Arabs who supply the country’s oil needs.

"Why do we have this penchant for self-inflicted pain, of shooting our own foot, of making enemies when we don’t have to?" he asked.

He added that aside from the Arabs, Filipino Muslims might not like the involvement of Israelis in the training of local policemen.

The STAR reported on Sunday that 10 Israeli police experts will train 30 members of the PNP Special Action Forces on counter-terrorism at the SAF training school in Subic Bay. The training is supposed to start tomorrow and will last three weeks.

The PNP tried to justify the training by Israeli policemen, saying this has been ongoing for years anyway. Last year, after the Sept. 11 bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon by terrorists, the PNP sent a team of officers to Israel to train in counter-terrorism.

The senator acknowledged that the local police would learn a lot from the Israeli police, who are the envy of many countries. He added, however, that the training at this time is politically unwise and would only create problems for the Philippines.

Israeli anti-terrorist forces had made a name for themselves, especially after the much-admired raid on Entebbe in Uganda when they flew all the way from Tel Aviv to Entebbe airport and saved all but three of the hostages held by Palestinian terrorists. – With Efren Danao